Sakura no Tenshi
by StarlightAfterAStorm
Summary: RE-WRITE Konoha is in ruins. Sakura is sent back to the past in order to save her loved ones, but at the risk of losing her precious son. Is the cost of a better future for all Sakura's own happiness? Will Sakura be able to find a balance? Time Travel. MAIN SASUSAKU. Minor Naruhina, InoShika NejiTen.
1. Just the beginning

**Okay so I know I haven't updated in a long time, (years!). I go to college now. And with all of the stress I find myself turning back to fan fiction and writing in general. Go to my profile if you're interested in the big old rant about it. I'm re-posting this as a separate story. Same title, same basic storyline, but more detail, better plot (hopefully) better characters (hopefully). Better writing and story over all hopefully. **

**Once this has caught up to where the original is, I'll probably delete the original. **

**Right! I present to you "Sakura no Tenshi" can be translated as "Angel of Cherry Blossoms" or "Cherry Blossom Angel"**

**Thank you to anyone who still gives a shit! **

_**"Flashback"**_

"_**Inner Sakura"**_

"_Thoughts"_

_**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO**  
_

* * *

On an unusually clear night, you could see the Third Hokage looking out over the city of Konoha. He could feel something in his old bones. There was a disturbance somewhere very close.

"Hokage-sama, there is someone here to see you." Hiruzen looked over his shoulder to see Shiranui Genma and a young girl with a hood over her head. She lowered the hood to reveal a long rosette mane, tamed back into a braid and wide, bright mint green eyes. She looked more fairy than human. An ethereal glow seemed to emanate from her, as if her chakra were pulsing, pushing it's way out to make itself known.

"Haruno Sakura? What are you doing here at this time of night? Are you excited about becoming a genin tomorrow?" he smiled, for Sakura was among his favorite students. Always happy about her "Sasuke-kun" and he knew for a fact that, one day, she would be a strong kunoichi. He nodded towards Genma who respectfully bowed in return and closed the door behind him.

"I'm afraid, Lord Hokage, that I'm here under more pressing matters." Sakura's voice was not the high pitched whine it normally was. It was not the voice of a pre-teen girl, focused on cosmetics and crushes. Her voice was weary, stretched thin and so low Hiruzen almost had to strain to hear it.

At these words, The Hokage's face turned grave. He searched Sakura's face and saw the fear in her eyes. This was what he had been anticipating. He knew.

"What's wrong Sakura? You look pained, in a way."

Sakura hesitated to answer and instead fiddled with a diamond ring on a chain around her neck. Turned in the light, red flashed.

"Well, it's like this…

_**(Flashback)**_

_**The Village of Hidden in the Leaves. War torn and battle weary. Rain poured down, obscuring everything. Thunder boomed and bleakness pervaded the air. You could faintly make out a figure in front of the memorial rock with a smaller figure beside them.**_

_**"Okaa-san?"**_

_**"Yes Satoshi-kun?"**_

_**"He's here."**_

_**As he said that, a cloaked figure appeared before them.**_

_**"Sakura-sama, Satoshi-kun. Tsunade-sama wishes to see you."**_

_**The emerald eyed beauty turned her head at him and pushed a pink lock out of her face.**_

_**She turned once more to the memorial that held so many names dear to her. Names of people that were taken away from her and her son in the war.**_

"_**You know it won't help right? Standing here day after day. It won't bring them back. It won't bring HIM back."**_

"_**I know."**_

"_**Then why?"**_

"_**For my son!" she cried out uncharacteristically."For my son." she said again in a soft undertone.**_

_**She reached out and stroked his head, pulling him close. Turning around, she said,**_

"_**Come let's go."**_

_**When she turned around, she resolved to walk away from all of this. From the weakness that she so despised and that threatened to consume her.**_

_**And when the lightning struck, you could make out the name:**_

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

* * *

"_**You wanted to see us Tsunade-sama?"**_

_**"Yes. Sakura, are you sure you want to go through with this. Have you even thought of your son's feelings at all?"**_

_**She turned her head and stared at the boy who had remained silent all this time.**_

_**"You need to tell him. He's old enough to know the truth."**_

_**"It's already done. How could you think that I wouldn't tell him? I keep no secrets from my son."**_

_**Tsunade looked between Sakura and the boy who if not for his eyes, that were identical to his mothers, a beautiful emerald color filled with the same longing and loneliness that few could understand, she would mistake him for his father at his age.**_

_**BANG!**_

_**The door slammed opened revealing a panting Hinata and her disgruntled daughter.**_

"_**Sato-kun!" Hyuuga Suzume cried out and engulfed her best friend and first love in a big hug.**_

"_**Ack! Suzu-chan! I can't breathe!" His face was tinted pink and he was trying very hard to be strong and not show any feelings for the blonde-haired girl.**_

"_**Gomenasai! we tried to come earlier but we couldn't" the silver-eyed woman replied**_

_**Sakura nodded understandingly, giving her own best friend a hug. **_

"_**It's okay Hinata-chan I'm just glad that you're here."**_

_**"Sakura, it's ready."**_

_**Sakura turned around and saw that on the floor of the Hokage's office, Tsunade had drawn a circle surrounded by ancient runes and marked with two wings on either side. As Sakura looked at that, she felt the urge to run. She could see only the bad memories which she would have to relive.**_

_**Whirling around, she crashed her son in a tight embrace.**_

_**"Sato-chan, take care of your aunt and Suzume-chan okay? Help your Grandma Tsunade okay? I love you."**_

_**"I promise Kaa-san. I love you too."**_

_**A smile appeared on her face and, for a moment, she looked like the twenty seven year old she might have been.**_

_**Stepping into the circle, she vaguely heard Tsunade say an incantation and feel the wind swirling around her. All she could think was:**_

_It's going to change. Everything's going to be different. I can stop this war from ever happening._

**_(End Flashback)_**

* * *

"That's what happened. Tsunade-sama's jutsu allowed me to travel back in time to stop what happened from happening. At the same time, it transformed my body into my twelve year old self."

All this time, she had played with the diamond ring around her neck and had not looked at the Sandaime. Now she looked up to see him with his head in his hands and his eyes closed. She could see the worry lines etched on his face.

"Who is the father?"

This question came so suddenly that it threw her off. Of all the questions she had thought that he would ask, she didn't expect this one.

"Excuse me?"

"Your son. Who is the father?"

She looked down, reluctant to answer this question.

"I would rather not say until the right moment if you please." she said while clenching the ring tightly in her fist.

"I understand. Meanwhile, I will make sure that everything will be taken care of. You, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto will be put into Squad 7. Would you like me to tell any of the jounins?"

"No!"

Her outburst surprised him. She looked rather wild for her hair hung around her face and her eyes were wide with shock and defiance.

"None of the jounins must know. I don't know how many repercussions will be made with only you knowing and I don't want to completely destroy the future and accidentally make it worse!" By the end of this speech, she was breathing hard.

"Yes things must change, but I want things to go as close to the original as possible with some exceptions. Uchiha Sasuke-kun must never get bitten by Orochimaru, you mustn't die if we can help it, and Uzumaki Naruto should stay alive!"

"Yes," he said quietly, "I understand."

She could not look at him any longer for his gaze seemed to pierce her, as if he could read what she was thinking. So she turned to leave and said,

"It's good to see you again sir. I best be getting home. My parents are probably worried."

And with that, she walked out of the Hokage's office. He watched her walk down the road and muttered to himself,

"I wonder."

The next morning…

"Sakura! It time for school! You don't want to be late!"

"I know! I'm coming!" she shouted back at her mom.

_I wish she would stop treating me like a child_

_**Shannaro! She used to treat us like such children!**_

_Where have you been for the past ten years?_

_**What I can't have a vacation?**_

Truth be told, she had kind of missed her Inner. She gave her someone to argue with.

Checking herself in the mirror one last time, Sakura took in the figure staring back at her. She hated her twelve year old body. She hated the flat figure, yes. But most of all she hated the weakness of this body.

Even though she had retained all of her knowledge of medical jutsus and battle experience, none of it did any good if her body couldn't handle it. Her chakra coils were pitiful and her physical muscles even worse.

She needed strength. She needed change. And that change would start now with her physical appearance.

She still retained her shorts, changed to a black color replacing the forest green, but no longer was she wearing that hideously impractical red dress. Instead she had replaced it with a crimson skirt, the white Haruno circle proudly displayed. Both sides were slit high on the thigh in order to give better range of motion during training or battle.

Her top now consisted of a white highnecked vest with crimson stitching and was cropped at the top of her stomach showing the mesh shirt she wore underneath. This vest also had attached to it an overly large hood that hung down her back. Her arms stayed bare save for a small pouch strapped to her left bicep carrying poisoned senbon.

And her shoes? She replaced the typical open toed ninja sandals with white ankle boots. Tsunade had long taught her how to fight with heels and these had wicked sharp ones.

Feeling confident, Sakura pulled on a new pair of black gloves as she stepped out the door.

"I'm leaving now!"

Walking along the streets, she ran into none other than Yamanaka Ino.

"Well, well. If it isn't Little Miss Forehead. New clothes? I don't know why you even try. It's not like Sasuke will notice you."

"Good morning Ino."

Not wanting to get into a fight with her this early in the morning, Sakura gave her a curt nod and walked right past her. Ino took this as a challenge and started walking faster towards the school. Not wanting to miss a chance to pass up a chance to show up Ino again, Sakura smirked and sped up.

To Ino it would seem as if she disappeared when in truth she had sped up too fast for her to see. Arriving at the school in under a minute, Sakura found she was early to class. She walked in to find it empty, save for the Uchiha prodigy himself.

His dark eyes took in her new clothing but he made no comment. It unnerved her.

She cringed and reluctantly made her way towards him.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun!" she crooned to him in a bad imitation of how she used to act around him.

He raised his eyebrows at her odd behavior, but said nothing.

"Ehehe.": sweat drop: "Okay then."

She sat down and tried to quietly wait for the other students to arrive. Tried being the operative word. His presence wasn't exactly make for the most relaxing environment. Soon she was whistling, humming, singing softly under her breath, among other things. Without thinking, she started playing with the ring around her neck.

Sasuke saw this and immediately grabbed her hand. Pulling up the ring to the light, he stared and then snarled at her,

"Where did you get this?" The look on his face was one of absolute fury and hatred, which was not one seen often at this age. But from her time it was all too familiar a sight to the rosette. Her heart broke at the way his young features twisted with unfamiliar, yet _oh so familiar_, rage.

He shouldn't have a reason for this. Not yet. Annoyance, yes. Anger, yes. But the look on his face was one that was only seen with the mention of Itachi's name.

"Sakura! I'm not going to ask you again! Where. Did. You. Get. This?" with each word he shook her and waited for an answer.

"Forehead girl! Get away from my Sasuke!" the moment was broken by a panting Ino at the door. Sasuke quickly let go of Sakura's wrists and stepped away.

Ino looked between them, thinking that she might have interrupted something important. Narrowing her eyes at Sakura, she pulled her towards the hallway.

"I'll be right back Sasuke-kun! I just have to take care of something!" looking back Ino threw a flirty wink at a still fuming Sasuke who completely ignored her.

Once they were out in the hallway and out of earshot, Ino rounded on Sakura.

"What the hell was that all about!? You were all over Sasuke! Don't even try to deny it Sakura! Sasuke-kun's mine! You hear me?" The blonde was nearly incandescent with her own rage. Where Sasuke's rage seeped darkness and horror, Ino's burned with righteous indignation. Periwinkle blue eyes demanded an answer and Sakura set out to give her one.

"No! Listen to me you Pig! If I want hang around with Sasuke-kun I will, but frankly I don't really care!"

She stalked off leaving a confused Ino standing alone.

_Maybe I shouldn't have yelled at Ino like that._

_**Shannaro! She deserved it! That Pig! How dare she try to challenge us!**_

_Besides that, Sasuke-kun really scared me. I guess he had a right to though._

_**Yeah. It's been ten years since we last saw him. And even then, it wasn't much.**_

_Ten long years._

While she was thinking, she didn't notice that a figure had come up to her.

"H-hi Sakura-chan! Good morning!"

Standing in front of her was a blushing Uzumaki Naruto.

"Naruto? What are you doing here so early?"

"It isn't that early. We have about five minutes left to get to class. Um, c-can I walk you?"

Sakura felt bad for Naruto. She knew that at this age, he had a crush on her. His whiskered cheeks were stains red and it was all she could do to not give him a giant bear hug and smother him with "I'm sorry"s.

"Naruto... I know you like me."

"What are you talking about Sakura-chan? You're crazy! Hahaha!" he rubbed the back of his head and tried to stop blushing. The sight only made Sakura's heart constrict even worse.

"Naruto don't lie. I don't like you like that."

Naruto's face fell and it took all she had not to sweep him up in a big hug.

"But just because I don't like you like that doesn't mean we can't be friends?" She looked up into blue eyes shining with hope. "Okay?"

"Okay Sakura-chan. Dattebayo! And if we're friends, maybe you'll find yourself falling in love with me!"

She rolled her eyes at his persistence but smiled anyway. Knowing where his feeling should lie, she decided to lead the conversation in a different route.

"Say, Naruto? I know someone else who'd like to be your friend. Why don't you try being nicer to Hinata-chan? She would definitely appreciate it."

His nose scrunched up in confusion.

"Hinata? That's weird. She's weird. She always acts funny around me and she never talks to me. It doesn't seem like she wants to be my friend at all!" He huffed a little at that, sure in his supposed knowledge of the Hyuuga Heiress's feelings.

"Trust me when I say Hinata wants to be your friend Naruto. She's just a little shy. I know. Why don't the three of us go to Ichiraku later? We can all get to know each other better there. My treat!"

His grin came back full force and Sakura nearly teared up at the sight. She had missed Naruto very much. They had been closer than brother and sister.

"But seriously Naruto, spend some more time with Hinata-chan. You never know, you might just end up falling for her."

"You know, Sakura-chan, you say the weirdest things sometimes!"

Sakura just smiled to herself and walked along.

When they arrived in the classroom, they found themselves surrounded by Sasuke's fangirls.

"No I'm sitting next to Sasuke-kun!"

"No me!

"Me!

"Me!"

Mentally gagging at the attitudes of the fangirls, Sakura pushed her way through and announced,

"I'm going to sit next to Sasuke-kun and if anyone has a problem with it, tough luck!"

"Forehead Girl, no way!"

"You're not sitting next our Sasuke-kun!"

"All right! That's enough! Take your seats." A frustrated Iruka called out.

As he called the teams, Sakura put her head on her desk, already knowing who was going to be on what squad. As she was just about to fall asleep, she heard her name being called along with Naruto's and Sasuke's. Her head snapped up at the immediate uproar from Naruto not wanting to be on the squad with Sasuke and from the fangirls not wanting Sakura on the squad with Sasuke. Immediately iruka quieted the class down, leaving Sakura to doze off until lunchtime.

* * *

Sakura was currently brooding at the bench. She laid down on it just as she had fifteen years ago. Looking up at the sky she wondered. Feeling a presence, she looked up to see Sasuke leaning against a tree smirking at her.

_**(Flashback)**_

_**"Sakura, your forehead's so big. It makes me want to kiss it."**_

_**(End Flashback)**_

_Hehehe. I remember this. Naruto impersonated Sasuke so that he could kiss me._

_**Shannaro! If he thinks that he'll get away with this, he's got another thing coming!**_

'Sasuke' had walked up to her now.

"Sakura, your forehead's so big. It makes me want to kiss it."

He expected her to be screaming with glee, but was surprised when she said , "Naruto, I thought I told you to give up on me. Honestly, I think you'd be much happier with Hinata-chan."

Sakura smiled to herself and wondered if she was making _too_ much of a difference. Maybe she should stop trying to interfere and just wait until the time was right.

_No, _she thought. If her experiences showed her anything is that things could not have gotten much worse. She was too hard on the Sandaime when she snapped at him. She would have to apologize later.

"Sakura-chan?" There was a _POOF!_ And Naruto was standing in front of her. She jumped slightly. She had become lost in her thoughts and forgotten that he was there.

"What is it Naruto?"

"Do you really think that Hinata and I would be right for each other? I mean she never talks to me. She really seems to avoid me."

_Oh Naruto! If only you knew._

"I don't know Naruto. I told you, Hinata's really shy. And who really finds true love at twelve?" _Well, besides me anyways._ "Why don't we all try being friends first?"

She sat there and talked to Naruto until the lunch break was over. Learned how to be friends with him again. Re-learned things about him, things that she hadn't known yet at that time in her life because she was too focused on Sasuke and never gave Naruto another thought.

In turn, she let him learn about her. About how she secretly wanted to be strong and be a kunoichi that people would remember for her kindness, compassion, and for being the best medi-nin in the village.

He grinned at that and announced that when he was Hokage, she would be the director of the hospital. She laughed in response.

They continued to talk and she unintentionally let things slip. Like the fact that she was scared. She immediately shut herself down. When he asked her of what, she wouldn't say. She looked at him and in those few seconds, he saw the broken soul that was left behind.

"Sakura-chan.."

She quickly turned away and when she faced him again, the mask was in place and she was smiling.

"Come on Naruto! If we don't hurry, we're going to be late for class!"

She grabbed his hand and dragged him to the classroom.

_Sakura-chan.. _Naruto thought _I'm going to find out why you're so sad. And when I do, I'll kill the person who caused it. Believe it!_

* * *

**Okay! Well, that's all for the first chapter. This has taken me a long time to get right and I've made A LOT of changes to the original storyline that i had planned years ago. **

**Review and Kiki-chan will give you a pocky!**

**The second chapter will be updated tomorrow morning because i just love you all and I feel guilty for basically uploading almost the same first chapter of the other story! **


	2. Teamwork?

**So more editing done. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS GIVEN ME SUCH SUPPORT FOR THE FIRST CHAPTER!. **

**So here you go! The second chapter of Sakura no Tenshi re-vamped (again)!**

**Disclaimer: I DON"T OWN NARUTO**

* * *

Sakura awoke that morning to a feeling of dread. Something was wrong. She fingered the ring around her neck and wondered…

_Sasuke-kun, Satoshi-chan… I hope that the both of you are okay. Satoshi-chan, watch over your Aunt and Grandma. Protect Suzume-chan with your life. I can only hope that I'll be able to see your smiling face again. _

She sighed heavily and tried to get dressed for the day. She wasn't sure if she was prepared for what was going to happen. Today was the day that she and the others were going to meet Kakashi. She thought back to the night before.

She had gone to the Third Hokage's office to talk to him. She told him that she had decided to tell the jounins. In case of an attack or if something went wrong, she wanted to be prepared.

"She had said **"The only ones I want informed are Hatake Kakashi, Sarutobi Asuma, Maito Gai, and Yuhi Kurenai. However, please don't tell any of them about me until after the teams have been introduced. And I'd like to be the one to tell Hatake Kakashi myself. I want my team to earn their sensei on their own, not just because I know we HAVE to be together by default."**

The look on the Sandaime's face had been surprised to say the least, but he didn't say anything, only nodding his head and she got the feeling that he wasn't telling her something. She asked him what was wrong and he replied that maybe the jounins may have some doubts.

**"If they have any doubts, tell them to come to me and I can prove to them that what I say is true. I know I'll have to prove to Kakashi, but somehow I don't think that will be too much of a problem." **With that, she once again turned around and left the Tower.

_Maybe I was a little rude._ She thought to herself.

_**Hell no! If they don't believe us they'll get the ass-kicking of their lives! Hahaha!**_

_Excited much?_

_**Cha! I'm finally going to show that I'm strong enough to beat that Sasuke and demonstrate my awesomeness!**_

_You're starting to sound like Naruto._

_**What! You dare compare me to that…**_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud shout.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Come on! We can grab some ramen on our way!" Yes, her favorite knuckleheaded ninja came to pick up Sakura so that they would not be late. The Academy had given the genin squads a few days reprieve until they were to meet their new teacher. Over those past few days, Sakura and Naruto had been spending more time together and true to her word, she had persuaded Hinata to join them. The only downside was that Sakura had forgotten how Hinata had stuttered so much that she couldn't talk straight when Naruto was around.

With Sakura's behind the scenes prompting, Hinata and Naruto started spending time alone without Sakura. Not that she minded that at _all. _

Naruto seemed to like the Hyuuga's company. She never criticized him and even seemed to admire him though he had asked why. She had replied that he never gave up and that she looked up to him for that. He even started calling her 'Hinata-chan' which, when she heard that, promptly made her faint. Yes, Sakura was very proud of playing cupid.

Sakura leaned out her balcony to call out to Naruto and Hinata who she knew was too quiet and polite to shout out at her.

"No Naruto! You go ahead and eat with Hinata-chan! I'll meet you in the classroom later!"

Naruto didn't seem to mind for he yelled out: "Alright! Come on Hinata-chan! Let's go eat ramen and then later I'll walk you over to where you're supposed to meet your team." He grabbed her hand and sped off. "Eh! Hinata-chan? What's wrong? Why are you all red? Maybe some ramen would help! Dattebayo!"

Sakura held her hand up to her face and snickered a little at Naruto's antics.

_Oh Naruto, you might be maturing faster than before, what with growing closer to Hinata and all, but you still are the same number one hyper knuckle headed ninja I knew._

She sighed to herself and looked at the clock. She had an hour if she wanted to be "on time", but she knew that Kakashi was always a few hours late. Sighing once again, she looked into the mirror.

"Look at yourself girl. You're pathetic. What are you doing here?"

"That's what I'd like to know."

Her eyes widened at the sight before her. She wheeled around only to find an empty window sill where, she had been sure of it, she had seen someone she hadn't thought she would ever see again. She looked back at the mirror and saw that nothing was out of place.

She kept sighing to herself and lay down on the bed crossing her arms over her eyes in the process.

"You're going crazy. There was no one there. If you keep sighing to yourself, you'll get shorter than you already are. Besides, why would they be here? _How_ would they be here? It's impossible! _Impossible._" She said the last word in a soft undertone.

She looked out the window to the soft blue sky outside and the fluffy clouds passing by. Even with the laughter of children and the birds happily chirping, the anxiety from that morning returned. She gripped the ring hard in her hands and prayed that what she was doing was the right choice. That somehow, this would turn out all right.

* * *

"Sakura-chan! You're late! Why are you so late? It's been three hours already! I've gone three hours without ramen! When is that jounin going to show up already! I'm so bored! Sakura-chan do something!" Naruto shouted as Sakura walked into the room.

"Shut up dobe. If the jounin is late that must mean that he had a good reason for doing it."

Sasuke spared a glance in Sakura's direction, but that was all he did. Sakura ignored him completely and turned to Naruto.

"Be patient, Naruto. I bet he'll be coming along any minute now."

"Aww! But Sakura-chan!" Naruto decided he couldn't wait any longer and grabbed an eraser off of the board. "If he thinks he can get away with making us wait so long, he's got another thing coming. Hehehe!" Naruto snickered to himself and set the eraser on top of the doorway so that when Kakashi walked in, it would fall on his head.

"Naruto!"

"Dobe. Do you really think that something like that will fool a jounin?"

At that moment, Kakashi stuck his head in the doorway only to have an eraser fall on his head. There was silence in the room.

_I can't believe he fell for that again. _Sakura felt a pang at all the good memories that she had. She hung her head.

_That's a jounin? Pathetic. _Sasuke thought to himself.

"Hmm." Kakashi's eyes scanned the room, linked with Sakura's for a second and then lingered on Naruto. "My first impression of this group is… you're all a bunch of idiots."

Naruto and Sasuke's face fell and Sakura actually burst out laughing so hard that tears came to her eyes.

"S-sorry." She said between chuckles as they looked at her funny, and turned her head away for the giggles had turned to hiccups and the tears of laughter had turned to tears of remembrance. She quickly shook her head and followed the rest of Team 7 to the roof. She looked at them to see whether they had seen her tears and was relieved to find that no one had noticed.

_Stupid, _she told herself, _be more careful next time._

She did not however see Kakashi look back at her and find Sasuke watching her carefully as if he was re-evaluating his opinion of her.

"Okay." Kakashi announced as soon as they had gotten comfortable. "Why don't we start with this? Tell us what you like, what you don't like. Your dreams for the future. That sort of thing."

"Why don't you go first then sensei? Show us what you mean -tebayo!" Naruto shouted

"Okay. My name is Hatake Kakashi. Things I like…well I don't feel like telling you. Things I don't like…you don't need to know that. And my dreams for the future…that's none of your business."

"Don't you think that was a little pointless sensei? You really only told us your name." Sakura spoke up. Kakashi shrugged as a response.

"Ooh ooh! I'll start! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen, Sakura-chan, and Hinata-chan! I especially like the ramen at Ichiraku ramen stand! That's the best! Wait, actually no. The best ramen is the kind that Hinata-chan made for me and Sakura-chan the other day! That was really good. Yeah, it really was! Things I don't like are… Sasuke! And my dream is to become Hokage! Believe it!"

"That's very good." Kakashi smiled and sweatdropped.

_He must really like ramen this guy._

"Okay next, you." He pointed to Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke." He said in a monotone and continued. "There are little things that I like and many I don't like. I have two goals in life. To restore the Uchiha clan… and to eliminate a _certain someone._" His eyes flickered over to Sakura, but her face remained impassive. Meanwhile Kakashi raised a brow at the venom in his voice and Naruto slowly inched away in fear. Kakashi motioned to Sakura to speak up next. She nodded in acquiescence.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. Things I like are medical jutsus, concentrating on my charka control, hanging out with Naruto and Hinata-chan, and" her eyes strayed to the ground and her fingers made their way to the ring that she never took off of her neck. "Praying that those dear to me are safe."

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto said

She looked back up and her eyes were void of emotion once again. "Things I don't like are people that hurt those dear to me, people who make you believe that they care about you and people who make a promise to you and don't keep them." Instead of being emotionless, her eyes were now filled with anger.

"My hope for the future is that I can become a strong kunoichi whose name will be known and not forgotten. I also wish to spend my future with all the people I care about."

There was silence. Sasuke eyed Sakura carefully, wondering where had the fangirl of a week ago had gone. Naruto seemed to have a pitying look in his eyes. He had watched this new changed Sakura and learned that although she was tough, she doubted herself. Kakashi decided to change the subject. He didn't have much experience with pre-teen girls and this one was definitely weird. Even for his standards.

But there seemed to be something about her. A burning in her eyes that never seemed to completely extinguish that intrigued him. He decided he'd find out about it the next day.

He clapped his hands. "Tomorrow we'll meet in Training Area 3 by the Memorial Rock . Be there at 6 a.m. sharp and don't eat breakfast. You don't want to end up puking. I want you to follow this as if an order given to you on a mission. Remember this, those who don't follow orders are scum but those who don't care about their friends are worse than scum." He seemed to smile at them beneath his mask and they shivered.

"Have a good night's sleep. You'll need it." The next moment the only thing the benin could see was a cloud of smoke, all that was left where their sensei had been.

* * *

Sakura headed for the training grounds at 8 a.m. Two hours later than when Kakashi prescribed, but right on time for them to have a light breakfast. She made her way to her teammates with not only her lunch, kunai, and shurikan, but also with three breakfasts for Team 7.

"Good morning boys!" She cheerfully called out. She wasn't the least bit nervous about this at all. All they had to do was work as a team and they would pass.

"Neh neh! Sakura-chan? Why do you have so much food?" Naruto called out.

"It's our breakfast." She told him. "We're going to need it." Having said that, she promptly sat down and started eating. Handing one to each of the boys she asked, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"Sakura, Kakashi told us not to eat. Are you going to disobey a direct order from our sensei?" Sasuke raised his eyebrows at her and narrowed his eyes. This was getting ridiculous. In the amount of less than a week, her personality had completely changed. She was no longer one of his fangirls, she no longer stalked him, and she considered Naruto and that Hyuuga girl to be close friends. In fact, she revered to him an attitude that at best could be described as cold. She didn't even try to pretend and act like she used to anymore.

In answer to his question, she glared at him and announced, "We are going to need the breakfast. Kakashi-sensei was kidding when he said that we would puke. Listen. We need to pass this test or we get sent back to the academy. The fastest way to pass would be to use teamwork. TEAMWORK!" She emphasized the last word and looked at Naruto who looked up from his breakfast and nodded. Turning her head to Sasuke, she looked at him as if to say "Well?"

"I don't need you guys slowing me down. I'm stronger than you guys so I don't need your help." He ignored Sakura's breakfast and stalked off. She stared after him.

_So full of pride. _

_Sigh, Satoshi-kun._

Naruto watched them interact and caught Sakura's wistful stare. Despite being called stupid repeatedly by others, he was actually smarter than he let on. Yet another clue to add to the puzzle that Sakura had created. He watched as she stood up and went after the onyx-eyed boy. He observed when the Uchiha broke down and reluctantly agreed to eat with the two of them. He noticed Sakura fingers straying to the necklace And he saw how Sasuke's fists clenched whenever hers came to her neck. Interesting.

* * *

**POOF!**

Kakashi appeared in front of them at roughly 9 o'clock. By that time, they had cleaned up their breakfasts, and Naruto was arguing with Sasuke over something while Sakura was studying a medical scroll she had brought with her. She knew the information on it already, but it was always good to re-check the simple things. Plus, even the simple procedures on the scroll were supposedly too difficult for a twelve year old Sakura. So if anyone asked she could just say she was trying to read ahead.

"Yo!" he called out to them. "Sorry I'm late! See there was this lady who needed help crossing the street and then she had a heart attack so I had to…"

"Oh stuff it Kakashi-sensei." came a voice from Sakura's direction. "We all know you're a liar so save it. The least you could do is make up a good excuse."

Kakashi and Naruto sweatdropped. Sasuke looked away in annoyance.

"Ano sa! Kakashi-sensei! Why were you really late? You told us six sharp and it's nine! Did you stop to have ramen? That's probably why right?"

Kakashi went on as if not hearing Naruto. "Today I will give you a test. Of the twenty-seven students that passed the Academy, only nine will actually become genin."

"WHAT?!" Naruto's voice echoed in the clearing, but Kakashi ignored it and soldiered on.

"To pass my test, you will need to get a bell from me." He held up two bells that jingled. His eyes caught Sakura's and he cringed inwardly at the calculating feral gleam in her eye. Weird one, this girl.

"You must get a bell before noon or no lunch." Sakura grinned and instantly Naruto was glad that he had eaten Sakura's breakfast. Sasuke looked at Sakura.

_How had she known? She packed breakfasts for all of us knowing that Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat anything. Somehow, she knew beforehand to prepare._

"Alright! There's no way that I'm gonna miss out on lunch! Believe it." Naruto grabbed a kunai and charged at Kakashi who grabbed his hand and held it behind his back. Naruto squirmed in his grip, trying to break free but finding it difficult with his own kunai poised at the back of his neck. He very nearly panicked at having been disarmed so easily.

"Why are kids always in such a rush these days? I didn't say start yet. Oh, and one more thing. Feel free to use any means necessary to get the bells. That includes using shuriken." Sasuke's eyes widened and he smirked. Kakashi's eye crinkled signifying that he was smiling and he shouted out, "Start!"

Sakura quickly moved and grabbed Sasuke as well as Naruto and led them out to a clearing in the nearby forest. Kakashi looked at his empty hands.

"Well I'll be." He started off at a leisurely pace in the direction they had disappeared.

"Aaah! What the… Sakura-chan? What are you doing?"

"Shh!" Sakura held her hands on Sasuke and Naruto's mouth so as not to give away their position. "Like I said earlier. We need to use teamwork on this test. That is what is important. Those who disobey orders are scum, but those who don't care for their friends are worse than scum. Remember?"

"Saa. But what about the bells." Sasuke contributed. "There are only two. If each of us need one to pass, one of us will be left without one."

"That's Kakashi's plan. Three people and two bells. It leads to group conflict. Therefore, I propose a plan."

"Wait a minute!"

Sakura and Sasuke turned at the sudden shout to cover Naruto's mouth.

"Naruto! Be quiet! We don't want him to find us."

"Shut up dobe! What could you possibly want that would cause you to shout and give away our position?"

They let go and turned to look at Naruto.

"I don't get it."

They fell down anime style and Inner Sakura was close to coming to the surface. Naruto took one look at her face and immediately cowered behind Sasuke who backed up a couple of steps, for he had never seen this before. The Sakura he had seen was a goody two shoes who always had a smile on her face.

Naruto unfortunately was _very _familiar with Inner Sakura.

"Sakura-chan! Please forgive me! Don't kill me!"

All the shouting attracted Kakashi who was laughing in the trees at the scene before him. A pissed off Sakura trying not kill a cowering Naruto and an amused Sasuke on the sidelines.

_Ah, well _Kakashi thought _we have to get through this somehow_.

He pulled out his Icha Icha Paradise book and headed towards them.

"Ninja Battle Skills #1: Taijutsu" with that, he attacked Naruto who as he concluded was the weakest of the three even with the Kyuubi inside of him.

Lunging out, Kakashi sideswept Naruto who was caught off balance. Sakura immediately took action and tried to punch Kakashi. She held back her strength considerably. Kakashi though had no idea of Sakura's strength and was mildly surprised at how well she handled Taijutsu.

Sasuke soon joined the fray. He too widened his eyes at the scene before him. Sakura was holding her own against a jounin! How? He clenched his fists. Sakura was steadily growing stronger in his eyes and would surely soon surpass him. He needed to train harder if he was ever to beat Itachi.

"Sasuke-kun! Watch out!"

He looked up to see a barrage of kunai coming at him. He quickly dodged.

_Damn! I was too caught up in my thoughts to notice. Focus!_

Making the proper handseals, he prepared for his Fireball jutsu.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

Kakashi's eyes widened and he shouted, "What? Genin can't use fireball jutsus! It takes up too much chakra!" Where he was standing, turned into a blur and he disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Naruto shouted

Sakura looked around and remembered the training after Naruto had come back. Kakashi had been underground. She tightened her fist, but held back. Showing her strength too early in the game would make the others suspicious.

"Sasuke-kun! Naruto! He's underground! Trust me!" They all separated and stayed in the trees waiting. After 15 minutes of waiting, Sakura realized with a jolt, that Naruto's voice could be heard from far away.

Her eyes caught Sasuke's and he nodded. They quietly made their way to the clearing where they had started. There was Naruto tied by his ankle to a tree. Sakura hung her head down.

_That idiot._

She slowly headed down and looked for any traps.

"Sakura. What are you doing? Kakashi could be anywhere." Sasuke asked of her.

Looking at him, she smiled. "Teamwork remember?"

Suddenly her body froze. Shuriken hit Sasuke pinning him to the tree.

"Sakura! Help!" His bloody hands reached out to her.

Sakura smirked. "Sorry Kakashi. You won't get me that easily. Kai!" Dispelling the jutsu with a crossing of her arms and fingers, Sakura looked up to see the clearing wasn't the clearing at all, but a forested area.

"Clever. You wove the genjutsu over me and Sasuke together, separating us."

"Ninja Battle Tactics #2: Genjutsu." His voice rang out. She followed the source of the voice hidden in the branches of a tree. "Very good Sakura. You saw underneath the underneath. But you're going to have to do more than just dispelling a weak genjutsu like that one if you're going to get one of these bells."

Sakura scoffed at the condescension in his tone. "And _you're _going to have to do better than leaving me with another clone!" Her kunai aimed true, turning the clone back into a simple log. She grit her teeth in anger at becoming separated from the boys.

If memory served her correctly, about this time, Sasuke should be stuck in the ground and Naruto should be trying to steal the bento boxes for himself. Naruto? Or Sasuke? Deciding that Naruto should be able to take care of himself, she ran in the direction of Sasuke's chakra in order to dig him up and try to talk some sense into him. How many times would she have to say "TEAMWORK" before the boy got it? And they called Naruto the dumb one.

Soon she reached another clearing with nothing out of the ordinary save a lone head popped out of the soil.

"Need some help there Sasuke?" Said boy glared at her, willing her face to melt from the intensity of his gaze.

"Let me guess. Ninja Battle Skills #3: Ninjutsu?" Giggling to herself she began digging. "You know Sasuke, you can't just keep running off to defeat Kakashi by himself. We have to work together."

"Pssh. I don't need your help. Awhile ago I touched one of those bells. Next time, I'll get one for sure. I have to go _now._ It's almost lunchtime." The dark-haired boy turned away from her and Sakura was paralyzed by the sight of the crest on his back turned towards her. So many times before she'd seen that profile walking away from her. The anger that accompanied that thought was swifter than she expected and the burning in her veins demand she respond.

"Did you not listen to me at all when we started?! We need to work as a team!"

"I don't need you and Naruto on my team." He turned his head to gaze at her coldly and ice replaced the fire inside of her.

The alarm signaling noontime went off. The shrill sound startling both of them.

"Damnit. I wasted my time talking."

Together, in stiff silence, the two made their way back to the Memorial Rock.

* * *

**Ok, So I cut out the original ending and started expanding. Also, I had meant for the end of the chapter to be when they made it as a team, but it just got too long! So...**

**See you next Friday! **


	3. Make it or Break it

**Chapter 3**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

* * *

Kakashi had that disappointed look on his face. It didn't matter how old she got, It still served to make her feel ashamed.

"Well. None of you three managed to get a bell. However, I decided, I'm not sending any of you back to the Academy." A fake smile plastered itself on his face, seen through the lines of the mask.

"WHAT?! That means all three of us...! All three of us...!" Naruto squirmed in happiness and glee as best he could tied to the post. Sasuke smirked in victory. But Sakura knew what was coming and braced herself for it.

"Yes. All three of you... Are being dropped from the program. PERMANENTLY."

Naruto and Sasuke both froze as the information processed. Sakura clenched her fists together, tears welling up despite herself.

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT! YOU SAID THAT WE WOULD BE SENT BACK TO THE ACADEMY! YOU CAN'T JUST CHANGE THE RULES LIKE THAT! WHY?!"

"Because you don't think like ninja. You still think like little kids. Like brats."

Sasuke bristled at the statement. He pulled out a kunai and charged at Kakashi who grabbed him, pulled the kunai out of his hands and sat on top of the Uchiha. His foot put pressure on the top of Sasuke's head as he redirected the kunai to Sasuke's neck.

"You know I'm actually inclined to change my mind and let one of you pass. After all, Sakura's the only one of you three who really grasped the concept behind this whole test. The only one who thought as a ninja should and put her teammates above herself. One of the most basic attributes a Genin should have. She even went as far as to tell you. REPEATEDLY." He shook his head in disgust. Naruto wouldn't look Sakura in the eye.

"Naruto, you do everything on your own. Everything. And you, Sasuke. You thought that the others were so far beneath you that they were worthless. ARROGANCE. Ninja missions are carried out in squads for a reason. Every mission your lives are on the line and you need to be able to count on your teammates to back you up."

Kakashi moved off of Sasuke's back and towards the Memorial Rock behind them. "Did any of you look at this stone? And the names engraved on it? These are all ninja who are honored as heroes in our village."

"That's it! I like that! One day I'm gonna have my name engraved on that stone! I'll be a hero! A HERO!" Naruto's eager face shined with the prospects of being a hero and Sakura couldn't take anymore. She let out a muffled sob at the memory _(f__uture?)_ of having his name on that stone.

Kakashi looked back with pity and sorrow in his eyes. Sasuke looked at her with confusion _(weren't her parents civilians? who could she know on that would affect her on that stone?_) And Naruto looked with horror.

"Sakura-chan! Don't cry! Why are you crying?!"

Sakura ran her hands through her bangs, pushing them away from her face and looking up at the sky in order stop the tears. "Because Naruto..." Her voice was soft and deep. There still remained a hitch in it that broke her boys' hearts. Even if they weren't her boys yet. "The people whose names are on that stone. They are marked as KIA."

"KIA?"

"Killed in Action."

Naruto paused and his face fell at the implications of it. He turned away from her again.

"Alright." Kakashi's voice broke through the still awkwardness of the moment. "I'll give you guys one last chance. Have your lunch. And after that I'll give you a few more hours to try and get a bell again. But Naruto doesn't get any food. It's your punishment for breaking the rules because you tried to eat by yourself. And,"

His sharp dark eye took in the other two.

"If anyone tries to feed him, that person will be immediately disqualified. Understand? I'll give you one hour" He poof!ed away leaving them to their lunches.

Sakura breathed a sigh, trying to discreetly wiping away the remaining tears.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto's hesitant voice came from slightly above her.

"Hmm?"

"Are you ok?" Blue, blue, blue eyes bore into hers and she smiled at him. Mask back in place.

"Of course I am Naruto! Sorry for getting all weird there!"

The remaining Uchiha' clenched his fist around his chopsticks at the obviously fake smile on her face. The Sakura he had grudgingly grown up with had always been embarrassingly transparent. To have her try and actively deceive them and to find out that she'd been keeping more than a few secrets rankled with him.

"Anyway, Naruto, here have some of my food."

Sasuke jerked his head up.

"Are you crazy Sakura? Do you want to fail?" Slightly red-rimmed apple-green eyes swiveled to meet his and he caught his breath at the deepness of emotion in them. This was definitely a new Sakura.

"Sasuke-kun, what have I been saying this whole time?"

"...Teamwork..." he grit out.

"I am merely concerned for my teammate and if that makes me a bad ninja, then so be it." She huffed softly, knowing how it would rile him up.

Angrily seeing the logic in her words, he knocked away her chopsticks and replaced them with his own.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"I'm a part of this team too aren't I?" The words, carelessly spoken, with no way of knowing how they would affect her, filled her with a blooming warmth.

"Yes." She murmured softly, savoring the words, cradling them carefully between her hands and tucking them away for enjoyment later. "You are."

She smiled at him then. A genuine smile that he hadn't yet seen from this new Sakura. And while he'd never admit it. He liked her better this way. With the sunlight streaming down on her and her eyes clear and bright. No mask.

Realizing that he was staring a bit, Sasuke shoved the chopsticks towards the tied up blonde again. "Here, dobe. Hurry and eat. Kakashi might come back any minute."

Not one to turn down food and more than a little surprised at how cooperative Sasuke is being, Naruto did as he was commanded and took the bite into his mouth. However, as soon as he did, an explosion occurred, wind and dust blowing into their faces. Kakashi stood in front of them. A dark look on his face.

"You broke the rules! AND JUST AFTER I LEFT! I hope you're ready for the punishment!" The sky grew dark to match his mood and lightning flashed in the distance. "Any last words?"

"B-B-But you... you said...!" Naruto flailed about trying to gain as much movement as he could while still being tied down. He flinched as Kakashi directed his focus towards him.

"Yes?"

"You said... that's why Sakura and Sasuke..."

Sasuke gave a sharp look to the blonde and interjected with "We're all on this squad and we're all in this together!"

Sakura's eyes gleamed with happiness. She was so proud of her boys. Joining the rally, she cried out "Yeah! The three of us are one!"

"The three of you are one? That's your answer?" Kakash advanced menacingly on the trio, taking in all of their faces. He was especially intrigued by the look on the kunoichi's face. It was the only one devoid of any fear, anger or rebellion. Rather, it was filled with a giddy light, as if she could already predict his verdict.

Interesting.

Weird girl.

He resolved to start a discussion with her later.

"Hm... You pass."

"...What?"

"You. Pass." A smile broke out behind the mask.

"...What?"

Kakashi chuckled to himself. "I told you before. Those who break the rules are scum. But those who leave behind their friends are worse than scum. So! You are now officially Team 7. We start our first mission tomorrow!" He gave them a thumbs up in acceptance.

"YAY WE DID IT!" Naruto's face crumpled as he cried tears of happiness.

Sasuke smirked victory.

Sakura herself wanted to cry tears of happiness. She settled for untying Naruto and giving him a gigantic hug, not even minding the way he bawled over her shoulder.

"Oh!" Abruptly Sakura let go of the blonde to run over to her bag. She rummaged around in it frantically as the three looked on in confusion and curiosity.

"Ta-da!" She pulled out a camera triumphantly "We need to take our first picture together!"

"Yeah! Great idea Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes but let himself be grudgingly led to the group. Kakashi took up the rear and the two boys stood side by side in front of him while Sakura set the camera on top of the Memorial Stone and fiddled with the timer.

"Okay, smile everyone!" Sakura ran quickly to the center of the group, linking her arms through each of theirs, a grin on her face.

"But if Sasuke-teme actually smiles at the camera it might just break the lens!"

"What was that dobe?!"

"You heard me!"

"Now, now..."

SNAP!

The image captured would never be the prettiest picture, but the meaning it would hold for the young (_not quite that young_) woman was absolutely priceless. An almost exact replica of the picture taken in a lifetime lived before.

* * *

"Alright! Let's go to Ichiraku to celebrate! It's way past lunchtime and I'm starving! RAMEN RAMEN RAMEN!"

"Hn." Sasuke turned away from the group. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Sasuke-kun?" He didn't respond verbally but raised a hand goodbye. Sakura figured he was going to go train in the private Uchiha grounds. She turned back to Naruto who was still trying to lead them to ramen.

"Hey Naruto? Why don't you go see if Hinata-chan's done with her squad yet? You can go get ramen with her."

Sakura needed to talk privately with Kakashi. And from the look in his eye, he wanted to talk with her as well.

"GREAT IDEA SAKURA-CHAN! DATTEBAYO!"

He sped off, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake and she giggled at his enthusiasm.

"Well?" She looked up to see Kakashi's eye trained on her and as resolved as she was she still felt a curl of unease at the veiled suspicion in his eyes. Today had been the start of everything, but she had to keep reminding herself that these were not her boys yet. This was not Hatake Kakashi, father, source of comfort. This was Hatake Kakashi, new jounin instructor, wary ninja first, teacher second.

"What is it sensei?" His eyes narrowed at the faux-innocence injected into her voice. She had to remember that despite his goofy exterior and love of all things Icha Icha, his intelligence dwarfed even Shikamaru's.

"Ok... What do you want me to say?" Her voice dropped, turned serious, solemn.

"Who are you?" His arms crossed over his chest and he pulled out his orange book, seemingly nonchalant. "You knew right from the beginning what the point of the exercise was. You knew I was underground even though a genin shouldn't have been able to tell that. You saw through my (admittedly weak) genjutsu and were able to _dispel_ it. And you're taijutsu is astounding."

Sakura cocked her head to the side, a look of confusion on her face. "Do you not think it's possible for me to be a remarkable student. You yourself graduated from the Academy at five years old, sensei."

He shook his head. "No I think it's more complicated than that. Your Academy scores are remarkable in the more studious areas. You are, after all, touted as the the most clever genin of your class. But your taijutsu and ninjutsu scores are... average. Not _bad_... but not great. And to have improved so greatly in the time between graduation and now... well, I'll ask you again. Who are you?"

His voice hardened and though Icha Icha hung loosely from his fingers, she knew she'd be outmatched in a second if she made any threatening moves. He watched warily as she slowly moved closer. Until she stood right in front of him.

Sakura smiled up at him in admiration. He was caught off-guard at the undisguised affection in her eyes. Even more so when she moved forward to encircle him in a hug.

"Ummm..."

"I know this is weird. I promise I will explain everything. I've just missed you so much."

She moved away from him to sit next to the Memorial Stone, patting the space next to her, inviting him to sit. Kakashi shifted awkwardly before settling in a crouch next to her. He waited patiently as she looked up to the sky, absorbing the sun's warmth.

"I'm from the future."

He startled at that.

"What?" He was about to say more, maybe to protest, maybe to ask whether or not her sanity was in question, when she turned her head to look him straight in the eye.

Sakura's green eyes held a deep sadness he'd seen before. But there was more than sorrow residing in her gaze. Hope. Happiness. Weariness. Comprehension. Of the life and of the world. It wasn't possible for one so young to carry that sort of deepness with them. That kind of deepness came with the experience of living as a ninja. Giving your everything for your village and for your loved ones. He'd seen that look on very few people.

"I'm from the future Kakashi. Think about it. It makes sense. I have more knowledge of taijutsu, genjutsu and ninjutsu than any genin should have. The issue is re-training myself and applying it to the limits of my twelve year old body. It's how I knew about the bell test. It's how I know about you. It's how I know about almost everything."

It made sense. It was logical. And Kakashi had never been one to deny anything weird without getting all the facts first. But there was still a small part of him that railed against it. That cried out against the idea of time travel.

"Prove it."

Sakura herself was startled now. "How else do you want me to prove it?"

"We were close in the future?"

She nodded in confirmation "You were a father to me. Not just a father figure, but a real father." She crossed her arms over her knees and smiled at him.

A lump threatened to form in his throat at the sentiment. At the sincerity and simplicity with which she stated it. And the sight of her, so innocent. She was just a child.

"If we were really that close, tell me something only I would know. Something I told you that twelve-year old Sakura couldn't possibly know."

She thought about that for a moment. How deep, how _private_ should she go?

"Your left eye holds the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan. You can't turn it off and that's why you cover it with your headband." He remained silent,wary, so she continued.

"It belonged to your teammate and best friend Obito. You were on a mission and he was crushed by a rock. Your other teammate Rin, performed the surgery in the field."

His hands clenched and she figured it would be best to stop there. He let out a slow breath. Yeah, that clinched it for him. Very few people knew the details of his time with Obito and Rin. That this girl could know about it, only he could have told her himself.

"Okay... okay then."

"Okay?" She looked him in the eye.

"Okay. So what does this mean? Why did you come back?"

Now that was a complicated question. Or maybe not. She huffed out a breath herself, fluttering her bangs.

"I came back because the future is terrible. Konoha is in near ruins. 99% of the people I know and love are dead. There's a war coming. I wanted to prevent it. And I wanted a better future for me and my child."

"Your child? How far back did you come?" A silver eyebrow raised in question.

"15 years. Even though physically I'm still twelve, mentally I'm 27. Your age, old man." She grinned at him and he grinned back. "I want to prevent all those deaths. I know I'm taking a huge risk coming back, but I had to."

He nodded, standing up and holding out a hand to her.

"Well, then. Why don't we take it one step at a time?" He sighed, thinking about the trouble that was to come and reached out to ruffle her hair. "During training we can work on building up your chakra again and your muscles. I assume you don't need help with technique?"

She shook her head. "Not, really. I could stand to bulk up my knowledge even more though."

"Okay then. You should know well enough what would be the best training regimen for you. I'll babysit the boys and try to keep them from killing each other."

She shuffled her feet bit, biting her lip.

"Can we spar now? I know I'm not nearly at one hundred percent, but I want to find out what my limits are in this body."

Kakashi looked up at the sky for a moment before smiling down at her.

"I think we can do that."

* * *

The two of them stared at each other from across the field. Kakashi had his book put away but he hadn't yet pulled his headband up to reveal his Sharingan. Sakura ground her teeth at that, but acknowledged that she probably wouldn't be able to take him on alone with it. Not yet anyway.

She made the first move, sprinting up to him, clones already appearing at her side. Two of them flanked Kakashi, trading kicks and blows with him while the original tried to focus enough of her chakra into a fine point.

He hissed in pain when he blocked a kick and realized her heels doubled as knives. One edge, extremely sharp. The other, serrated.

Though they had sparred a little bit earlier during the bell test and he had prepared himself for her attack, he was impressed to find how prepared _she _was. Even for a day that was only meant for a simple teamwork exercise. What he was not prepared for was for the original Sakura to come at him with enough finesse to create chakra scalpels. He barely got away without having his throat slit. Ducking out quickly, he performed the seals to escape underground.

Sakura smirked when she realized Kakashi had disappeared.

"Forward? Left? Right? Behind? Above? No. Must be... Underneath!" She clenched her fist, gathering chakra, and as she punched the ground she released it all at once. Her punch had nowhere near the strength she was used to, but the effect was similar to when she had first started learning this technique from Tsunade, all those years ago, existing now only in her memory. Despite the weakness in this body, she still had her perfect chakra control and even with her limited amount of chakra, the effect was devastating to the landscape.

Kakashi's eye was wide with disbelief. What monstrous strength! Knowing that she had good techniques hidden up her sleeve and seeing them in action were two very different things.

Sakura gave him no time to rest. Shuriken came at him, followed by kunai, followed by poison senbon. He managed to evade all but one of the senbon, which nicked him in the shoulder. Immediately, his whole left arm became numb.

Close call. If he had been hit dead-on his whole body would likely have been paralyzed.

Sakura came back in for close contact, her feet loaded with chakra and her hands equipped with kunai. Kakashi caught her leg, just above the ankle, the heel centimeters from his face. She jackknifed her body, a kunai aimed for his face. He threw her away from him.

He watched as she backflipped out of the fall, landing lightly on her feet and breathing heavily. He could tell she was finding her limits far faster than she would have liked. But still, her limits as they were, were far higher than he had expected. She was _good. _

"I think that's good enough for today, Sakura." Her startled eyes raised to meet his.

"What? But I can still do more!"

"You're obviously exhausted Sakura. You've done amazingly well. That and I can't feel anything on my left side." The numbness had spread now down to his left leg and he was having a hard time staying up. Strong poison on those senbon, even if weren't immediately lethal.

Sakura was pleased with the answer. "I'll admit Kakashi, I didn't expect to hit you with any of those senbon." She made her way over to him, antidote already in hand.

The two of them sat down and she handed over the antidote, already bringing chakra to her hands to start healing him. As he downed the contents of the small bottle, she smoothed her hands over the small, but deep cuts caused by her boots and kunai. Satisfied that he could handle the bruises himself, she got to work on healing herself.

He watched in awe as the worst of her injuries closed themselves, leaving her with only a few scraped and bruises.

"When you said you wanted to be a medical ninja, you weren't kidding. And that technique you used. Creating all of those craters." He cast a baleful eye at the torn landscape of the once even training ground.

"I've only ever seen one person able to do that before."

Sakura hummed in reply. "Tsunade, the Slug Sannin. I was her apprentice. She taught me combat and medicine. And as much as I looked to you as a father, I looked to her as a mother."

He nodded, feeling as if she would never stop surprising him. Kakashi stood then. He held out his hand to help her up and informed her he would walk her home. She smiled at him, guilelessly and he couldn't help but smile back.

Together, the two made their way silently to the Haruno house where Sakura bid Kakashi goodnight and said she would meet the rest of Team 7 at Hokage Tower in the morning.

Naruto was on his way to becoming her brother. Kakashi, on his way to becoming her father. Team 7 was Team 7.

Though she had barely scratched the surface of what was to come...

Yes, Sakura would say that she was off to a good start.

* * *

**Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed chapter 3! I count this as the real start of the divergence and I'm so excited to move forward from here. I'm already a few chapters ahead and I'm excited to see where the story's going so far. I will warn you. This will not be short and I will not give up. I'm in it for the long haul and I hope all of you are ready to join me!**

**Until next week! Don't forget to let me know if you're enjoying the story or not!**


	4. Lost Boy

**CHAPTER 4. :D Here you go. I haven't slept in 40 hours. MIDTERMS+REHEARSALS=NO SLEEP. **

**Hope you enjoy. **

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. **

* * *

As the sun reached it's rosy fingers through her window, Sakura opened her eyes. She had been awake long before the sun rose but had opted to try meditating to clear her mind.

Team 7 had been Team 7 for little more than a month. Soon it would be time for their mission to the Land of Waves. She estimated about another day or two until they got the mission looking for that lady's cat that would make Naruto so fed up that he'd complain to the Hokage about the lack of difficulty on their missions.

She giggled softly to herself at the thought of it.

Pulling herself out of her relaxed posture, Sakura headed to her dresser, starting her day off on a good note and wanting to get some extra training in before the boys to to the grounds.

A month later for Sakura meant a month of harsh training behind Sasuke and Naruto's backs. With Kakashi helping her in addition to her solo work, Sakura had become quite the accomplished kunoichi.

In official training, she kept her head down for the most part, working on intricate chakra control exercises and weight training to build up her muscles. While the boys would spar and Kakashi would "supervise", Sakura would be off to the side doing menial work, trying to increase her stamina.

With Kakashi she sparred and put all of her technique to work, finding that she could last against him longer and longer. And in addition to just helping her, he was also _teaching _her. She had added quite a few helpful elemental jutsus to her arsenal, focusing mainly on earth jutsus.

And besides that, Kakashi was also taking it upon himself to help her with weaponry. Once she'd let slip to him that she preferred axes, he retrieved for her both a large axe and a multitude of smaller hatchets. Along with those, he was also training her with tantos and a katana. The different technique of the different weapons were difficult, but she was definitely trying.

By herself, she did a variety of things. Sometimes she did more endurance training, but on a higher level than what she would allow her teammates to see. In order for them not to notice, she would sneak out late at night or early, early morning to one of the training grounds on the very edge of the village. There she could demolish trees and mess up the landscape as much as she'd like.

Other times, Sakura could be found in the library, re-absorbing things she'd already known. She knew it might be a waste of time, but she couldn't take the chance that because she was unfamiliar with something, it cost her. So she studied a variety of subjects, not just medicine.

Medicine, science, politics, history, cartography. Anything to keep her up to date and aware of everything around her.

Since her first meeting with the Hokage a month before, she'd been seeing him about once every three days. Each time, they would meet for an hour or more. They drank tea and ate sweets. They debated politics. Once or twice they would brush on the subject of the future, but Sakura did not want to reveal too much just yet for fear of starting an avalanche of actions that would spin out of her control.

Typically after an hour, Hiruzen would be called away to another meeting, but he allowed Sakura access to the same room she had trained in when she first started training with Tsunade. In there, she was able to freely able to practice her medical knowledge, both simple and complex.

He even allowed her to have some samples from the hospital labs to analyze. Discreetly and anonymously of course.

As for the hospital? Sakura had started making friends with the nurses. She asked them questions she already knew the answers to, making known her interest in the medical field. She was kind and polite so when they had the free time, sometimes they started showing her the basics. She "picked it up quickly", and then even some of the doctors took notice in her. It was slow going, and a part of her hated it, but she knew it was necessary. Knew it would be worth it in the end.

Everytime she did something that shouldn't have been remarkable for the 27 year old Sakura, but obviously impressed Hiruzen or Kakashi, Sakura reveled in the feeling. She knew it was childish and petty. She also knew that she had come back for a much larger purpose with such high stakes on the line. But when Kakashi praised her, she couldn't help but feel a little vindictive satisfaction that, yes, Haruno Sakura is _worth something. She's worth more than just her Forehead and her love for Uchiha Sasuke. _

But even the slight appearance of those negative thoughts served to blow a black cloud into the sunshine of her new life. She wanted to focus on the positives, the new beginnings and the new possibilities.

Even so, there was a niggling worm of worry burrowing into her mind, growing larger all the time. Feeding into the blackness until a storm raged. All of the what-if's and could-be's. Biggest of all was the worry for Satoshi. His future was in flux. His _conception_ was in flux. She could only hope... for what?

Even she didn't know what exactly she was hoping for. She just wanted happiness for those close to her. For the people she loved and the people she hoped loved her back in return. That's all she wants and that's all she's hoping to gain. Lives and time are not playthings to be taken lightly.

But for her loved ones? Sakura would do anything.

* * *

The silver mist of early morning was just starting it's alchemical change to golden sunlight as Sakura finally made it to the training ground. Having gotten used to arriving much too early for Sasuke and Naruto and extremely early for Kakashi, she was surprised to see dark spiky hair and even darker eyes focused on her.

"Sasuke-kun? What are you doing here so early?" His eyes narrowed at her surprised tone.

"What? You think you're the only one who can come for early practice?" She tensed slightly, but knew that he had caught the tightening of her shoulders.

"You've been keeping secrets Sakura. You may think you keep them well-hidden but you don't. You've gotten too good, too fast. Even if you have been training by yourself, it's still too much for you to accomplish alone. So what is it? Extra training with Kakashi? Why would Kakashi favor _you_?"

The derision in his tone was what finally set Sakura off. She had no tolerance for anyone looking down on her when she had earned her skills.

"And why shouldn't he favor me? Because I come from a civilian family? Because I have no Kekkei Genkai? Because I used to be one of your fangirls and now I'm not and you can't stand it?" Her voice grew in pitch until she was yelling herself hoarse at him.

"What do you mean by that?" Now, even Sasuke had been reduced to yelling. A small part of her mind registered that she had never seen him act this way with her. And yet his actions were vaguely familiar.

"I mean that you can't handle that I'm not following you around like a sick puppy anymore. I finally found something to focus on and it's not YOU! And I'm getting good. Soon, you'll be the one looking at my back!"

Slightly stunned, but never one to let anyone get something over him, Sasuke yelled back,

"Like I care that you're not following me around anymore! At least I don't have you clinging on my arm being an annoyance," Here Sakura visibly flinched at the vehemence with which he said the word.

"And what do you even mean 'You'll be looking at my back'? I'm angry because _you _were the one who said we were a team! What a hypocrite! Are teams supposed to keep secrets from each other?"

It felt like a slap in the face. She wanted to yell back at him. She wanted to hit him. Because she blamed him. She did. Because _he_ was the one who had always kept his secrets hidden. _He_ was the one who had walked away and fractured their family. _He _was the one who left scars, both physical and mental, on all of them.

But he hadn't. Not this Sasuke. Not this boy in front of her. Not yet at least. And it wasn't fair to blame him for actions he hadn't yet made.

Pulling a 180, Sakura could feel tears of shame prick her eyes. She was screwing this up so much! She was spreading herself so thin trying to keep everything together that there were things slipping through the cracks.

And she berated herself for feeling so damn fragile all the time. Her physical strength may be improving, but she was still in a 12 year old body. And she was having a hard time controlling all of those emotions that rose so easily to the surface when she was 12. For all of her future knowledge, it was becoming horrifyingly clear that the longer she stayed 12, the more she _felt_ 12.

She tried to fight it, to regain her former maturity, but it was exhausting trying to find the right balance. For everything.

Only now she found that she wasn't keeping everything in balance.

Though she had spent a generous amount of time re-fostering her friendship with Naruto and subtly trying to match him up with Hinata, she hadn't spent much time with Sasuke. She'd thought it was ok because she didn't think he'd want to spend time with her anyways. He'd never wanted to before.

But now, looking at him, she realized she'd overlooked how lonely Sasuke was too. Not that he'd been best friends with Naruto at this time before, but while they had formed their rivalry already, she had taken most of the attention for herself.

Not that he really wanted it, or would ever admit it if he did. But with Kakashi and Naruto both so focused on her, for their own reasons, they had all unknowingly excluded Sasuke.

And she could tell herself that Sasuke didn't want her friendship all she wanted, but she couldn't lie to herself. It was _she_ who didn't want to be around Sasuke. It was too hard. It _hurt _too much. _Oh God, it hurt. _

But looking at him, his eyes dark and angry and _lonely_. He was hurting too This wasn't yet the 13 year old who left her alone and crying on a bench. This wasn't the 17 year old who left her crying in bed, with only a note to keep her company. This wasn't the 18 year old who broke her heart all over again.

This was a 13 year old Sasuke who had been through tragedy, yes. But he had not yet sold his soul and cut out his heart in order to gain vengeance.

In her own heartbreak, she'd forgotten that he was once one of her precious boys, her Lost Boys. And now he would be again.

"Oh Sasuke!" She reached forward to pull him into her arms and he jerked away in reflex.

"Hey! Get off! What are you doing, get off!" But she didn't. She clung to him, whispering "I'm sorry's" into his shoulder.

He kept trying to break her grip but couldn't get her to let go. _When the hell did she get so damn strong?! _Eventually, he stopped struggling and tentatively put his own arms around her shoulders.

She looked up at him with red-rimmed mint eyes and something in him clenched at the sight. The fact that he was somehow the cause of those unshed tears didn't sit well with him. And he was still a 13 year old boy. He didn't know how to deal with crying females!

"I'm sorry Sasuke." His attention was jerked back to reality with the sound of her voice. He raised an eyebrow in question.

"I _am_ keeping secrets from you. _And_ Naruto." Seeing his mouth open to protest she cut him off.

"You have to know I'm doing it for a reason. I can't explain everything to you because it's not just my secret to keep. It affects so many more people than just me. And don't give me that bullshit about teammates not keeping secrets from each other. We all have our secrets."

Sasuke gave her a dry look at the trite sentiment.

"We do! If I offered to tell you all my secrets, would you tell me all yours?" He stiffened against her, thinking of what his own secrets were and he shook his head immediately.

"But that doesn't explain your rapid improvement. And your complete change in personality" She laughed then, a high free tinkling laugh that would have irritated him just the day before.

"Maybe with graduation I just decided to buckle down and get to work? Maybe I just finally decided to give up on boys? Did you ever think it was as simple as that?"

The grimace on his face told her that no, he didn't. It both amused her and broke her heart that he could be so naturally suspicious. That his first thoughts went to some sinister scheme being planned behind his back. Well, this time, there was a scheme, but one of salvation rather than damnation. And if Sasuke had a problem with that, he would just have to deal with it.

"OI! SASUKE-BASTARD! WHAT ARE YOU DOIN' TO SAKURA-CHAN-TTEBAYO?"

The blonde's loud and sudden appearance made the two jump, realizing they still had their arms around each other. Immediately, they jumped apart, Sakura's face as red as a tomato and Sasuke's own cheeks a slight pink.

"WERE YOU _MOLESTING_ SAKURA-CHAN?! HOW DARE YOU!"

Sasuke's eyes grew round, wide with shock and anger.

"Dobe." he hissed. "Don't say things like that so loud!"

"BUT YOU DIDN'T DENY IT! OMG, UCHIHA SASUKE'S A PERVERT!"

"Pervert! Aren't you the one with the 'Sexy Jutsu'?"

"SO?! I'M NOT THE ONE MOLESTING MY FEMALE TEAMMATE!"

"Stop saying that! I wasn't molesting her!"

"BUT I SAW YOU WITH MY OWN TWO EYES!"

"You didn't see anything!"

"BUT-" Sasuke lunged for him, so fed up that he couldn't figure any other way of shutting Naruto up other than punching him.

Sakura sat back, laughing at the sight of them rolling on the ground, wrestling and yelling about perverts.

"Well, this is an unusual sight." Sakura leaned back and looked upside down, seeing Kakashi's face looking between her and the two idiots still fighting.

"Morning Kakashi-sensei! You're not late this time!"

His eye crinkled in a return smile.

"So what's happening here?" his tone was mild as he took out his orange Icha Icha book.

"Oh nothing much. I gave Sasuke a hug and Naruto thought he was molesting me."

He nodded silently, posture still relaxed but his eye was sharp as he raised an eyebrow. She shook her head, answering his silent question. She returned her gaze to the boys who had worn themselves out and were sprawled on the ground next to each other, weakly flailing punches to the other's face.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura made her way over to help them up and check their injuries. Deciding that they could live with their bruises she left them alone for the most part, only fussing over them a little and trying to straighten their clothes. It seemed her mothering instinct was still intact.

Finally, all of them were deemed presentable by Sakura's standards and they gathered in front of Kakashi.

"SO WHAT'S OUR MISSION TODAY SENSEI?"

Sasuke covered his ears irritably and Sakura reached over to slap the back of Naruto's head.

"Indoor voice, hun."

"BUT SAKURAAAAA-CHAAAANNNN! WE'RE NOT INSIDE."

"Most people use their inside voices outside too."

"BUT THAT'S NO FFFFUUUNNNN!"

"Anyway!" Kakashi cut in, seeing the homicidal rage building in Sasuke's eyes and the twitch of Sakura's eyebrow signaling the appearance of Inner Sakura.

"Our mission today is an important retrieval mission."

"Whoah! Cool sensei! Who are we going to be rescuing?" Bright blue eyes looked up at him, hanging on his every word.

"Well, someone's Tora-chan has gone missing and we have to find her."

"A kidnapping?" Sasuke's tone grew serious, his posture straightening.

"No, she ran away." Kakashi looked over to Sakura, only slightly surprised to find her trying to hold back laughter. He winked at her dancing eyes.

"Well, what's her appearance?" The rosette threw in, setting Kakashi up for the big reveal.

"Well, she has short brown hair, and a big red bow on her right ear."

"Ummmm... sensei, don't you mean _above _her right ear?"

"No I mean _on _her right ear."

"..."

"..."

"...Is it some sort of weird piercing...?" At that Sakura couldn't hold back her laughter anymore. Sasuke looked back and forth from her wide grin to Kakashi's matching one.

"...Kakashi, who's the client?"

"Oh! It's the Fire Lord Daimyo's wife! We'd better get to the Hokage so he can brief us in more detail" He turned around, not waiting for them to follow.

"OI! KAKASHI-SENSEI! DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT US-TTEBAYO!"

Still chuckling to herself, Sakura followed the two at a sedate pace, Sasuke by her side.

* * *

4 hours later, an angry Tora-chan was returned to her ecstatic owner. The Daimyo's wife cuddled it and squeezed it, ignoring the sharp grating yowls coming from the cat. Naruto took in the sight, cackling with glee.

"AHAHA. Stupid cat! That kitty deserves to be squashed!"

The Hokage rolled his eyes and cleared his throat for attention.

"Now then, there are several missions available for Team 7. First off, babysitting the Chief Councillor's children, digging up potatoes for Takanaka-san who owns the grocery stand, walking some of the Inuzuka dogs-"

"NO! I WANT TO GO ON A REAL MISSION!" Naruto had his arms crossed in front of him in a negative stance. "I'm sick and tired of doing all this baby work! I'm a real ninja now and I want a real ninja mission!

Kakashi and Sakura both sighed, knowing this was coming. Sasuke quietly agreed with Naruto (Not that he'd ever admit it).

"HOW DARE YOU! YOU'RE JUST A BRAND NEW GENIN WITH NO EXPERIENCE! YOU HAVE TO WORK YOUR WAY UP TO MORE DIFFICULT MISSIONS LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE." Even though he should have been used to Naruto's antics by now, a vein throbbed on Iruka's forehead in anger.

"WWWHHHHAAAAATTTTT! BUT-" Sakura punched the overactive blonde in the back of the head.

"Oh, give it a rest will you?"

"Saaakkkuuurrraaa-chaaaaannn! That wasn't very nice!"

"Naruto." The Hokage's deep, calm voice wafted over them. "It seems you do not understand the tasks you've been given. Our village receives many different requests, from babysitting to assassination. We look at these requests and then rank them accordingly, from A-rank to D-rank. We ninja are also-"

"I get it, I get it! Sakura-chan already explained this to me! We're untried genin so we're supposed to work our way up and do a ton of D-rank missions. But seriously! I'm not a brat who used to play pranks all the time! I'm a real ninja now and I want a real ninja mission!"

Hiruzen chuckled indulgently at his outburst. "Naruto wants to show us he's not a brat anymore huh? He wants a real ninja mission? Fine then. Since you are so determined, I'll assign to you a C-ranked mission. You'll be bodyguards."

"What really?! Alright? Who are we guarding? A princess? A councilor?"

"Hold your horses Naruto. Genma, tell Tazuna he can come in now."

As the door slid open, Team 7 turned as one to look at their client. A man with scraggly grey hair and beard leaned heavily onto the doorframe. He took a deep swig from the bottle in his hands, his face already red from the alcohol in his system. The bridge builder was exactly as Sakura remembered him.

"What? These brats are gonna protect me? You gotta be kidding!" He took another deep swallow. "You really expect me to believe these snot-nosed brats are real ninja. I mean the girl's got pink hair for Kami's sake!"

"What did you say!?" It was only with the combined efforts of Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi that Sakura was held back. "I'll show him what a pink-haired ninja can do!"

Tazuna ignored the enraged rosette and focused his eyes on Naruto.

"And the runt with the idiotic look on his face? I doubt he'll be much help for anything!"

Having finally calmed Sakura down enough to be held in place by just Kakashi, Naruto burst out laughing. "Haha! Who's the runt with the idiotic look on his face?"

His laughing stopped abruptly when Sasuke and Sakura both moved to stand next to him, inches taller.

"Argh! You're gonna pay for that! I'll kick your head in!"

Kakashi sighed at his rambunctious team. "Naruto, you can't kick the client's head in. It's rude."

Tazuna reached the end of his bottle and threw it in the nearby garbage bin. "I am Tazuna. A mast bridge builder. And I must return to my home in the Land of Waves. I am building a bridge there that will change our world and I expect you to get me there safely. Even if it means sacrificing your life for mine."

His bloodshot eyes took in the kids before him. The runt still flailing in anger, the pinky giving him a death glare, the other one rolling his eyes, and the leader sighing in exasperation.

Hmph. These kids weren't real ninja. Like hell they'd be able to keep him safe from Gato. But he didn't have enough money to pay for a B-rank mission and get better bodyguards. He'd take what he could get.

"C'mon then. Let's go. I don't have time to waste listening to your idiotic ramblings."

He turned then, swaying drunkenly in the hall, hoping that these 4 would be enough. They'd have to be.

* * *

As they made their way out of the village after going home quickly to pack, Naruto somehow simultaneously pouted and cheered at the same time. The words _"I've never been out of the village before!" _ran through Sakura's mind. She ran forward, catching the crook of his arm. He looked startled at her and then at their linked arms, a slight blush on his cheeks. He still wasn't used to the friendship she gave so freely to him.

"Aren't you excited Naruto? Our first real mission!"

The irritation melted from his features and his grin, bright as the sun, lit up his face.

"Yeah, yeah! I've never been out of the village before! This is gonna be awesome! Believe it!"

Tazuna scoffed from behind them, another bottle in his hands.

"You got a problem mister?!"

Tazuna opened his mouth to let loose another tirade of insults when Sakura cut him off.

"That's enough! Both of you. Naruto, you can't get riled up by every little thing. And you!" Sakura turned around to point at Tazuna, walking backwards and trusting Naruto to make sure she wouldn't trip.

"Don't you think that's enough? You've not said one polite or positive thing this whole time. Whatever prejudice you seem to have against ninja doesn't matter. We're not expecting you to revere us or any other bullshit like that, but _you _are the one who came to us for protection."

She glared at him, her eyes darkening in anger to a deeper jade color.

"Not that we wouldn't do our job and protect you no matter what, but we're going to be stuck with each other for a while now. The _least_ you could do is be civil to us. Instead of acting like a child."

She huffed to herself, turning around. Tazuna stared in open mouthed shock at this slip of a girl. After a moment, she turned around again.

"Also, you should take better care of your body. If you keep drinking as heavily as we've seen you do today, I suspect your liver will give out within the next 2 years. Maybe 3 if you're lucky."

She made to turn around again when Tazuna stopped still, a roaring laugh escaping his mouth. She looked to Kakashi who smiled back at her. Naruto's barely controlled snickers reached her ears. Her eyes moved to Sasuke next, an approving smirk on his face. A soft heat flashed across her cheeks, but she chalked it up to the anger and annoyance.

"Haha! I like you girl! You've got fire in you. Alright, I'll play nice if the runt does too."

"Hey, I'm not a runt! My name is Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it! I'm gonna be Hokage someday with Sakura-chan as my head medic and director of the hospital! And Sasuke-teme over there can be one of my underlings or something like that."

"Watch it, dobe."

Tazuna scoffed. "Hokage are powerful and wise. You're just a little runt. A joke."

"WHAT!?"

Sakura put her head in her hands, groaning. "Did no one listen to anything I just said?"

Pointing his bottle at Naruto's head, Tazuna slurred "Maybe I might believe the girl could be a medic, I've got no idea of her healing skills. But the day you became Hokage is the day I sprout wings and fly."

"Why you...! Let me at him! You listen here! I'll do anything to become Hokage one day! BELIEVE IT! Let go Kakashi-sensei! Let me kick him just once!"

Kakashi held onto Naruto by the scruff of his collar, avoiding flailing arms, wishing he could be reading IchaIcha somewhere. Meanwhile, the other three started walking forward again, ignoring the blonde's protests.

Unseen, but not unnoticed, two dark shapes followed silently behind them

* * *

**Yeah... I'm not quite happy where this ends. But that's probably because it was supposed to be a part of the next chapter. But I decided to put the whole Mist nin/Zabuza thing all together instead of splitting it.**

**So this was more introspective I think. And I like that. **

**Did I do Sasuke justice? It's so hard trying to balance "Need for Revenge"/Avenger and younger protective Sasuke who sometimes smiled and who was sometimes kind. I really like exploring this Sasuke and the differences with who he has become in the manga through Sakura's eyes. **

**See you next week! Please let me know what you think of the story thus far! We get a little action next time. **


	5. Stab Me Through The Heart

**CHAPTER 5!**

* * *

For a time, the group walked on in peace, enjoying the summer sunshine. Sakura chatted with everyone, Naruto chatted only with Sakura and Sasuke remained silent for the most part. Tazuna grunted here and there, flinging out a few half-hearted insults at Naruto. Kakashi followed Sasuke's mostly silent pattern, letting the fragile peace wash over him, but remained always vigilant.

All was well until a bridge entered their line of vision.

Sakura started a little at the sight. She knew past that bridge would be a puddle, hiding a Chunin Rain ninja. As they made their way across, Sakura lagged a little, coming in line with Kakashi. She grinned up at him. He grinned back, putting a hand on her head and ruffling her hair a little.

"Are you enjoying your first C-rank mission Sakura?" His open eye danced with mirth.

"Yup! Even though we've just been walking so far, it's been super fun to just get out of the village! I just hope it doesn't rain soon."

"Rain? Sakura-chan what are you talking about? It's all bright and sunny out!"

Naruto turned around to look at her funny.

"I know Naruto. But the closer we get to the Land of Waves, the more _mist _we'll see."

Naruto accepted her explanation easily, turning back around. However, Sasuke, perceptive as always, caught the surreptitious glance shared between Sakura and Kakashi. _What was _that _about?_

Kakashi looked down at his pink haired student as she slyly cocked her chin up higher, pointing out the lone puddle in the middle of the road. As they passed the puddle, he ruffled her hair again,

"Don't worry Sakura. Nothing's going to go wrong today."

As soon as he said that, spiked chains surrounded his body.

"What!"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's panicked face watched in horror as his sensei was torn to pieces right in front of him. The two chunin appeared behind him.

"Now it's your turn!"

Sakura was torn on whether or not to interfere, knowing Kakashi was alright and knowing Sasuke would be able to handle them just fine, but also knowing that getting injured by one of them would be the start of Naruto taking his journey as a ninja seriously. However, her conscience would not let her stand idly by anymore.

"Naruto! Get out of the way!"

Sasuke jumped up, throwing a shrunken and kunai in rapid succession in order to lodge the chains together in the trunk of a tree. He kicked their faces in, ripping the chains from the clawed holsters on their hands. One of the two went after the still paralyzed Naruto, knicking him lightly on the hand with a poison claw. The other came after Tazuna.

Sakura knew that if she waited for the ninja to come close enough for taijutsu, Sasuke would try to protect her. She clenched her fist, shoving Tazuna out of the way quickly. Seeing how both ninja changed their objective to focus exclusively on Tazuna, she shot out two senbons, hitting their mark perfectly. The two attackers instantly dropped to the ground, their bodies stuck in awkwardly painful positions.

She skipped lightly over to them, turning them around to see their wide shocked eyes. She narrowed her eyes at them, kicking them in the ribs for good measure. They let out pained grunts, not expecting this genin girl to pack so much power into her kicks.

"Are you ok Tazuna-san?" She held out a hand to the bridge builder who had fallen to the ground in the scuffle.

"Uhh... yeah. What did you _do_ to them?" He looked warily at her, all sugarspun smiles and cotton candy hair.

"Oh I just hit them with some poisoned needles. Oh! Don't worry!" She exclaimed at his shocked face, "It's not a lethal dose. They won't die... yet." He inched back a few steps from her and she could see the horrified looks on both Naruto and Sasuke's faces as well.

_Oh yeah, _she thought, _they haven't actually seen what I can do. They've only seen me do chakra control drills and weight training and simple taijutsu exercises. Not even close to something as advanced as specialized poisons. _

"Good job, Sakura." She started a little at the hand that dropped onto her head, "And you too Sasuke. You both did very well."

"Kakashi-sensei! But I thought you were-!" Naruto looked over to where he thought he had seen the remains of his sensei's corpse. All that lay in the middle of the road were cut up old logs.

"I'm sorry for not helping you earlier Naruto. I didn't expect you to freeze up like that."

Sakura saw how Naruto's jaw clenched in irritation. Saw how he transferred his irritation to Sasuke.

"Hey."

"Grrr. What, Sasuke?"

"You alright over there? Scaredy cat."

"RRAAAHHH!"

"Naruto!" Sakura's voice cut through the impending argument and subsequent fight. "Come here. Those claws were tipped with poison. I need to treat it now!"

As one, the group headed off the road and towards some large towering trees in order to tie up the still paralyzed attackers.

Sakura led Naruto away from them so as not to be distracted while Kakashi was interrogating both the attackers and Tazuna. As they sat down, she looked over Naruto's shoulder to see Sasuke looking back at her, an odd expression on his face. She ducked her head down quickly, looking through her large medic pack as an excuse to look away.

"Ne, Sakura-chan...WILL I BE OK?" Sakura's head shot up to look into Naruto's scared face. She smiled at him, putting his nerves to rest.

"Dummy. Of course you will. You don't trust me to heal you?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.

"NO OF COURSE I DO SAKURA-CHAN! YOU'RE THE BEST HEALER EVER. BELIEVE IT!"

"Naruto! Shh!" They laughed together as Sakura cleaned up the blood from his hand. "Hmm aconite. Strong poison. But from the way you're yelling I can tell you don't have numb tongue. Are you having any trouble breathing?"

Naruto stated to sweat again. "N-no :gasp: I-i'm not :gasp: having any :gasp: problems"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Naruto calm down. If you freak out, I can't tell the difference between a real symptom and what you're telling your body to do because you're scared."

"I'm not scared!"

"Good, so no problems breathing."

"Sakura." She looked up to see Sasuke blocking her sunlight. "Kakashi said he's done. How long is it gonna take to treat the dead last?"

Sakura turned her head to look over at Kakashi ad a depressed Tazuna. She shook her head. "Not very long. I'm just going through a preliminary symptom check. Naruto was poisoned with aconite, but not a very high dosage."

Sasuke crinkled his brow at that. "Isn't aconite extremely deadly? Shouldn't we get him to a hospital with a real doctor?"

"Excuse me?!" Kakashi and Tazuna's heads swiveled over to where the irate female of the team was standing nose to nose with the Uchiha prodigy. "And what, exactly, do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you're a new genin just dabbling in medicine. What do you know about treating something like aconite? I mean sure, you had those fancy senbon, but anyone can put poison on a weapon. Doesn't mean they know how to treat it."

At this point, Kakashi had made his way back to his team, holding Sakura back for the second time that day. His hands were heavy and held a tight grip on her shoulders.

"Now, now Sasuke. You haven't seen what Sakua can do can you? it's not really fair to be making snap judgements when you don't know what she knows."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, sneering slightly.

"Just because Sakura's been studying medicine doesn't mean she can do anything with the knowledge. It's different when you put it into practice."

Sakura made to lunge at him before Kakashi caught her around the waist, one hand coming up to to stifle her indignant swears. They were only vaguely muffled.

Sasuke, sensing the possible danger to his well-being, tried switching topics. He was only mildly successful.

"Much as I'd like to keep going on this mission, the dobe's hand is only going to slow us down. Especially if it's not treated right. And like you said, Kakashi, this shouldn't even have been our mission anyway."

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto, who had been surprisingly silent this whole time, finally spoke up.

"I mean, while you and Sakura were over here playing doctor, we figured out that those two Chunin over there weren't after us, but they were after the bridge builder. Meaning this should have been a B-rank mission and not a C-rank. Kakashi wanted us to head back to the village in order to re-arrange staffing and charge for the cost of a B-rank."

Naruto's face darkened at the explanation.

"NO!"

He pulled out a kunai, thrusting it into the wound on his hand, gouging it to try and remove the poison.

"Naruto!"

"I will not back down! I will not run away! I will never let anything as small as this get in the way of becoming a true hero. I've worked so hard for this! Trained hours on end. Upon this wound, I make this pledge. A real ninja never gives up and neither will I!"

He held out his bloody hand and the now bloody kunai out the group. "Bridge builder, I will protect you with this kunai! I will not back down from this mission!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Y'know Naruto, that was really cool how you tried to take out the poison and everything... but doing that won't remove all of the poison and now you're going to be suffering from severe blood loss. It'd be a good idea to stop the bleeding now."

"..."

"Seriously."

"Ah! Sakura-chan help!"

Sakura sighed to hersef, internally proud of his speech, knowing he'd stick to it for the rest of his life.

"C'mon back over here. Why don't we take the time for a quick break while we're at it?"

Sakura sat down in the shade of the closest tree, patting the ground next to her in invitation for the rest to join her. She smiled at each one in turn, save for Sasuke who earned a dirty look from her. He glared back at her in return. She began to clean up the blood from Naruto's wound again. In reality, she knew he didn't even need any treatment. The Kyuubi's chakra would take care of something as small as this.

"So, little girl,"

"My name is Sakura."

"Yeah, Sakura. So, _do _you know how to treat aconite poisoning?"

From the corner of her eye, she could see Sasuke scoffing under his breath. She clenched her teeth, wondering if she could get away with punching him.

_No, don't do it Sakura. Of course he doesn't think you're capable of it. He's only ever seen you reading scrolls. Studying it and knowing the material doesn't mean you can apply it. But damn if I don't want to show him up. _

"Of course I do. Aconite is deadly yes, but because it's so deadly it's also very common. Of course there's no true antidote for it-"

"What?! Sakura-chan, you said I'd be alright!"

"And you will you idiot! Let me finish." She cleared her throat and started off in her clipped, "Sakura-sama"-mode tone of voice.

"Aconite is a common lethal drug. It works quickly to slow down your heart, causing a heart attack. Some other symptoms, as I mentioned earlier, are numb tongue, respiratory issues, sweating and prickling of skin. The best way to treat a patient dosed with aconite is really, to try and keep them stable while their body fights the poison."

She could feel all of their eyes on her while she finished cleaning his hand and reached into her medic pack for a small vial. She poured a small amount of disinfectant onto the wound, wincing in sympathy when Naruto hissed at the stinging sensation.

"But you Naruto, while the poison was introduced directly into your bloodstream through that cut, it doesn't seem to have been a lethal dose. Add to the fact that you've now cut yourself even further, likely removing some of the poison before it could reach your heart. You're not showing any other symptoms other than,"

She paused in her speech for a bit to put a steady hand over Naruto's heart.

"Slightly lower heart rate, but steady. No more alarming than if you'd woken from a deep sleep. All of that adrenaline you probably pumped through your body after getting worked up during that speech probably helped too. And you're naturally a fast healer."

"I am?"

She nodded "I've noticed it. You heal faster than Sasuke or I do after training. I'm not worried about the poisoning. I'm just gonna bandage up your cut and you should be just fine by tomorrow, ok? If you're really worried about it, I can give you something but I don't think it's necessary."

Tazuna watched, clearly impressed while Sasuke tried hard not to be. Kakashi smiled indulgently as the dark haired boy pouted in his corner.

"Well, then. If Naruto's all patched up and good to go? Shall we move on?"

"Oh wait a minute! While we're stopped, let me look at Tazuna-san."

"Me?"

"Yeah. I told you earlier, all of that alcohol you've been drinking will have an adverse effect on you. I'd like to examine you for alcohol poisoning and liver failure."

The bridge builder looked warily at her. Kakashi, noticing his reaction cut in with a,

"Sakura, why don't you examine him once we get off the road? We'd better get to the Land of Waves as quickly as we can."

Sakura looked longingly at the forest full of helpful herbs. But Kakashi was right. They didn't have time to wait for her to go skipping off in the forest. Reluctantly she nodded.

"Alright then. Let's go."

An awed Naruto leaped forward to give her a hug. "Thank you Sakura-chan! You're the best medic ever."

* * *

From then on, he journey was relatively smooth. Sakura and Naruto chatted together intermittently and Sasuke stayed silent as usual, but there was a distinct frosty air accompanying Sakura's aura.

Hoo, boy. Kakashi could see that Sasuke's comments earlier had struck a nerve with Sakura. For someone of her knowledge and experience to have her skills called into question, even if it seemed justified on Sasuke's side? Well, she wouldn't be forgiving him anytime soon. Really, you'd think with all of his fangirls, Sasuke would learn how to speak around women.

Eventually the group made it to the edge of the Land of Waves. From there they took a boat through the thickening mist. Interrogating Tazuna even more they learned of Gato's crimes and were guilted into staying on as Tazuna's bodyguards despite Kakashi's desire to leave and report back to the Hokage for re-assignment of this mission into an B-rank or even A-rank.

Reaching the other shore, they still had a ways to go before getting to Tazuna's place. As Kakashi was contemplating how the appearance of the defeated Chunin would result in rogue Jounin, Sakura turned her head to look at Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei? I heard that the soil here is good for peaches. Is that true?"

He cocked his head at her before answering. "Actually it does. The Land of Waves has pretty temperate weather. And while it runs the risk of being too waterlogged, if they get a good irrigation system, peaches should flourish. "

"Oh, that's good. I wonder if we'll see some peaches this time of the year. Y'know I cut myself trying to slice a peach before. Ever since then I've been extra careful. I've _never cut_ myself _twice._" Sakura turned back around, whistling to herself.

Kakashi's eye crinkled in thought before widening at the message. _Momochi Zabuza? Here? Well, this mission just got a lot more interesting. And difficult._

As he thought, that, he could hear the faint whistle of a blade piercing the air.

"Get down!"

They all ducked, just barely avoiding the decapitation of their heads. Zabuza'z blade imbedded itself into a tree in front of them. Zabuza himself appeared standing on top of the blade. He turned his head to glare at Kakashi.

"Well, well, Momochi Zabuza. Fancy seeing you here."

Sakura could feel Naruto gearing up to try and attack Zabuza before Sasuke could. She caught his sleeve. At his questioning gaze, she shook her head. He look ready to protest until he saw how deadly serious her eyes were. Instead of blindly rushing forward as he would have done, he grit his teeth, trusting in her decision. It didn't stop him from voicing his opinion though.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei! Who is this guy?"

"A rogue ninja from the Mist. Be careful Naruto. He's not like those other guys from before. He's on a whole different level."

Zabuza chuckled darkly. "You know who I am. I'm flattered. Kakashi, of the Sharingan. Did I get that right? I've heard of you as well."

Sasuke's eyes flashed towards his sensei. Open shock warred with a hint of anger and curiosity.

Sakura took it all in. The bloodlust in Zabuza's eyes. The tightening of Kakashi's shoulders. Tazuna, frozen with fear. Naruto, fairly vibrating with the urge to attack, to join in the fray.

And Sasuke. A dash of uncertainty plain on his face. For maybe the first time she'd ever seen.

"While I'd love to stay and chat: Hand over the old man. And maybe I won't kill you all."

Kakashi growled low in his throat. "Team 7: Mangi Formation. Protect the bridge builder. I've taught you all teamwork. Now use it to protect the client."

He pulled up the headband normally shielding his eye, revealing the Sharingan.

"Oh! Looks like I'll be able to see the famous Sharingan in action. I'm honored."

"Hey! Sharingan this and Sharingan that! What are you all talking about?"

Sasuke spoke up, hesitation lacing his words.

"Its a very rare dojutsu. It grants the user the ability to see an opponents moves. It's mainly Genjutsu-based but works just as well for ninjutsu. But there's a lot more to it than just that."

"You got that right kid. But you're barely scratching the surface of what the Sharingan can do. Why don't we test it out?"

Almost immediately, a thick mist surrounded the quartet, blocking out their visibility. Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto took their places in front of Tazuna. Sakura to the right, Naruto to the left and Sasuke in the center. They watched as Zabuza re-appeared on top of the small lake next to them before disappearing completely into the mist.

"Stay vigilant. Zabuza's a rogue mist nin now, but he used to be head of the assassination squad. His specialty is the silent kill. Appearing out of nowhere, killing without making a sound. You'll be dead before you even realize it."

A chilling laugh echoed through the clearing.

"Eight Points."

They all stiffened at the way he seemed to relish those words.

"Eight points? What do you mean by that?" Naruto questioned.

"The 8 most vulnerable points on the body," Sakura spoke up. "Larynx, spine, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart."

"Impressive. So the little girl knows her stuff. How did you know?"

Sakura's eyes flashed at the continuous use of the phrase "little girl", but she choked it down.

"I've read a little about you. And besides, what kind of medic would I be if I didn't know something as simple as that about the human body?"

"Hmm. Don't you mean 'medic-in training'? Just having the knowledge doesn't mean you can do anything with it. Or anything about it. You'll still be dead before this battle's over. Now, I'll be nice and let you go first. You can even choose. Go ahead, little girl. Tell me which point you want to be impaled through?"

The obvious condescension in his voice made her want to punch him in the face. His words were so similar to the ones Sasuke had thrown into her face earlier. Briefly she wondered if Sasuke had caught the unintentional echo.

Her fist tightened around the kunai in her hands. She was torn, knowing Kakashi could handle Zabuza. And Sasuke and Naruto were more than willing to help out.

But, no.

She didn't care what Kakashi said. She wasn't going to back down. She was _not_ going to sit back and "protect the client" dammit.

Breathing deeply, Sakura was sure in her conviction to not just be the deadweight. Her mind clear, she focused back on the matter at hand.

She turned to her teammates only to see Sasuke paralyzed with something similar to fear. Her brow furrowed, not remembering this, but at once she felt it, the killing intent of Kakashi and Zabuza. The power of those two jounin's aura's clashing must be overwhelming to someone who had never been in true battle before.

She saw how his hand clenched around his kunai, knuckles bloodless. Saw the panic set in his features, how he almost couldn't handle the oppressive bloodlust. Felt her heart clench at how, years later, his own bloodlust would consume him. How he'd lose himself to it, forsaking everyone and everything else.

"Sasuke." Both she and Sasuke turned their faces toward their sensei. "Don't worry. I won't let any of my teammates die in front of me."

He turned his head to give them a placating smile.

"I don't know about that, Kakashi."

She felt it before it happened. Sensed how Zabuza's chakra split and a figure of him appeared between them. He stood behind the genin, in front of the bridge builder, his sword ready to slice away.

"It's over!"

Then she made her move.

While Sasuke and Naruto were shocked still at his sudden appearance, Sakura turned around, driving her kunai deep into his abdomen.

"Sakura!" The echo of her name throughout the clearing rang in her head, but she kept her focus. The clone in front of her dispelled as another Zabuza tried to take advantage of the situation to get behind Kakashi to slice him.

The others watched in horror as Kakashi was split in half, only for it to be revealed as a water clone. The real Kakashi held a kunai to Zabuza's throat.

"Now, it's over Zabuza."

He chuckled darkly. "I'll admit the little girl surprised me. But this is far from finished. I'll never be defeated by you, Copycat Ninja. You're just a crass imitation of the real thing. Clever though. But I'm not that easy to fool!"

The water clone dispelled again, revealing the real Zabuza behind Kakashi, already his sword arced into another swing. Kakashi ducked quickly, but wasn't fast enough to avoid the kick Zabuza sent his away.

However, before the kick could land Zabuza had to jump away to avoid the kunai Sakura had thrown.

"Little girl, you're really starting to annoy me." He growled out.

"Sakura-chan! What are you doing?!" Naruto's panicked voice reached her ears.

"1. My name is NOT little girl. It's Sakura.

2. I'm a hell of a lot more than annoying. Just watch me.

3. I'm not gonna stand idly by and watch you fight my sensei. Oh no, I'm gonna be right in the middle of it too.

Besides, didn't you say you were coming after me first?"

She smiled sweetly at him, crooking her finger.

"Sakura. What do you think you're doing?" Sasuke hissed at her.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan! You're gonna get yourself killed!"

Her green eyes bore into theirs.

"Naruto. Didn't you just make an oath to do your best and never run away? And Sasuke. I'd have expected you to be the first to jump in. What kind of ninja are we if we stay behind, pretending to protect the client while we let others fight our battles?"

"Oh ho. The little girl's got some spirit. I like that. It's a shame I have to kill you."

Sasuke's eyes hardened at the threat and Naruto pumped his fist into the air.

"Sakura-chan's right! I'm not running away and I'm not backing down. Never again. Believe it!"

He charged forward, calling multiple shadow clones, each equipped with kunai. However, Zabuza was faster, swiping his sword, dispelling most of them. One more clones appeared from the mist. The real Zabuza went after Kakashi himself, leaving one for the genin.

In a flash all of the clones were dispelled. Sasuke charged next but he was easily caught and thrown to the ground.

Sakura was right behind Sasuke, attacking with a flurry of punches and kicks, all the while trying to keep her chakra in check, not wanting to have to use it for super strength unless absolutely necessary.

Even if Zabuza wouldn't be able to tell the exact technique she'd be using, he'd still be able to tell a chakra laden punch from a regular one.

But it was hard. She wouldn't be able to defeat him alone. Not without using her chakra.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another clone get the drop on Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Sasuke and Naruto had both been advancing, trying to find a weak spot to try and attack again and help Sakura when their sensei fell into the lake. Immediately, the real Zabuza encased him in his water prison.

_Oh, shit!_

Taking her eyes off the clone in front of her gave him the opportunity he was looking for. He grabbed her by the end of her braid and swung her around.

"Oh no, Sakura-chan!"

"Well, well little girl. You were right. You _a__re _more than just annoying. But it looks like I've got you now."

He let go of her hair and the others could only watch, horrified, as their female teammate slammed sideways with a sickening crunch into the trunk of a tree.

"Oops. My hand must have slipped."

Dazedly ignoring the pain on her scalp, Sakura catalogued two cracked vertebrae that needed to be checked out. But before she could heal herself, Zabuza flash stepped in front of her, his foot flying out, connecting with her head and slamming it into the side of the tree again.

_Damn, _Was her first thought,_ I thought I was better than this. I _should _be better than this._

Those words spun in her head, the sounds around her ringing. Reading the clone's lips she could make out:

"You're still conscious? Bravo. But now I'll end this. You never told me your preference. So I'll just go for the easy one. Your heart."

She chuckled to herself, the laughs echoing in her addled mind. She saw the confusion in Zabuza's eyes from her manic laughs but could do nothing but keep laughing.

_Stupid man. Someone already used my heart to kill me a long time ago._

Her eyes slid to Sasuke, finding his dark head of hair like a shadow in the mist. His matching dark eyes wide. Panicked. _Concerned?_

"No, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura could barely focus as Naruto summoned more clones. Her vision faded in and out and the word _'concussion'_ registered in her mind. Tazuna made his way over to her body, picking her up, but with the last of her strength she turned her head to see Naruto throw a fuma shuriken to Sasuke.

Knowing that her boys could handle it from there, Sakura let darkness take her.

* * *

**For the record: Momochi=peach soil Zabuza=Never cut twice**

**Originally, the chapter was split in two, but I felt it flowed better if I had the whole Zabuza fight in one chapter. **

**Also, regarding any medical mumbo jumbo Sakura spouts off in this story, I have been doing research on poisons and various injuries and medicines BUT I am not a pre-med major. I do not claim to know completely what I'm talking about. Any inaccuracies I chalk up creative liberty. But I will try to make it as accurate as possible. **

**So... Enjoy! See you next week. Please tell me how you fell about the story so far! I like hearing your opinions!**


	6. Of Herbs and Weeds

**Chapter 6**

* * *

Sakura woke to the waning sunlight of early afternoon. Her head still throbbed with the pain on her scalp and from the lingering effects of the concussion. She tried sitting up, only to feel a wave of nausea hit her as both her head and her cracked vertebrae protested.

Falling gently back on the comforter, she tried to clear her mind and diagnose herself. A terrible thing for a doctor to do, but it was inevitable.

_Let's see. Nausea for one. But whether that's from the pain or the concussion is unclear. Dizziness? A little. No disorientation, no double vision. I won't be able to assess my motor skills and balance until I can get up. And of course there are my vertebrae. I'm just lucky I wasn't paralyzed by that hit. _

_Damn. You should know better Sakura. You should have been able to do better. But, no. You let the boys save you _again.

She was pulled out of her brooding thoughts by a voice barely muffled coming from the hall.

"I just wanna see if she's awake or not!"

"Well, if she's not you're going to wake her, dobe."

"Geez, Sasuke. Aren't you even worried about her? She hit that tree really hard! And then he kicked her in the head!"

"Which is why we should let her rest shouldn't we? Honestly, you're such an idiot."

"What did you say?!"

"You heard me. I-DI-OT."

The door opened to Naruto's scream of outrage, only for the two boys to freeze when they saw mint green eyes watching them calmly.

"Dobe. I told you you'd wake her up."

"Sakura-chan! I was so worried!" He jumped over to give her a big hug.

"AH!"

"Sorry Sakura-chan! I'm sorry! Are you hurt? Where do you hurt?"

"You really are a loser."

Sakura waved her hand to shush the two before they got into another fight. She motion to Naruto to help her sit up gently, burying her head on his shoulder when the nausea hit her again.

"Here, Sakura."

She lifted her head to see Sasuke with a cup of water in his outstretched hand. She hadn't noticed until now that he carried with him a tray with food and drink. For her presumably.

She smiled beatifically at him, taking the cup and gingerly sipping at it.

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun. And Naruto."

"You don't have to thank us Sakura-chan! Really you don't! You're our teammate and teammates have to stick together right?"

Sakura saw how Sasuke's dark eyes focused on her as he nodded in agreement. She swallowed the lump in her throat, linking all three of their hands together in the warm afternoon sunshine.

"You guys have no idea how much that means to me."

She turned to Naruto after a moment of basking in the rightness of it all, the three of them together.

"Can you hand me my pack? I need to heal myself and I'd rather not use up too much of my chakra when I have to heal Kakashi-sensei too."

"Right, right. No problem Sakura-chan!" He grinned his foxy grin at her, moving across the room to get her her medicine pack.

"Sakura."

"Hmm?" She turned, looking eye to eye with Sasuke.

"How did you know Kakashi was injured and needed healing? You passed out before he did."

Sakura froze.

His cool eyes bore into hers. Suspicious and inquisitive.

_Say something, stupid. _

"Kakashi-sensei passed out too? Is he ok? I saw him get kicked by Zabuza and assumed he would have some bruising. Maybe even some cracked ribs."

"How did you even know Kakashi made it out of that water prison? We could have left him there for dead."

Sakura narrowed her eyes.

"Well, for one, duh! It's Kakashi-sensei! And for two, I trusted the two of you to be able to handle it. Even if Zabuza's a high-level assassin, you guys would never have left him there. The two of you wold have gone down fighting. Since you guys are alive I assume Kakashi is too."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in return, but he accepted the answer as Naruto handed Sakura her pack, noting how her fingers trembled. From fatigue and strain? Or from nervousness? He couldn't tell.

He wanted to know this deep, dark secret she was keeping from the team. Well, from him and Naruto. He suspected Kakashi knew. Why? What could she be hiding that Kakashi could know but her teammates couldn't? There were too many things not adding up.

He watched as she slowly poured a small measure of two vague beige sand colored powders onto a small square of paper that had been folded in half. After that she poured an even smaller amount of a bright yellow powder that stained her fingers from the slightest touch.

He raised an eyebrow when she brought the paper to her mouth, dry swallowing the powders before taking another sip of water. The slight grimace on her mouth belied the ease and smoothness with which she had taken the herbs.

She caught both his probing stare and Naruto's awed one to elaborate.

"They're just some natural painkillers from ground herbs. Nothing fancy."

"It is fancy Sakura-chan! It's so cool how you know what to use and everything!"

"What did you use?" Sasuke's soft alto, not yet deepened to a baritone, floated over Naruto's words, cutting him off.

"Valerian root for pain. Ginger for the leftover nausea caused by the slight concussion. And turmeric for both pain and and as an anti-inflammatory just in case."

"Sakura-chan you're so cool!"

"I think she gets it."

"Sasuke you party pooper! Come on Sakura-chan! are you all better now? Can we go see Kakashi-sensei?"

Sakura shook her head.

"Not just yet Naruto. Remember how I hit that tree?"

She watched the light in his eyes dim at the memory and forged ahead.

"Wait for it Naruto. This is the cool part. But I'm going to need your help for this."

When they'd picked her up after she passed out, it had exacerbated the cracked bones. And the worst of the bruising was hidden by her vest top. By laying her on her back to rest, they had actually hindered her healing rather than helped it.

Now, she undid the zipper of her white vest, rolling her eyes when both Naruto and Sasuke turned red.

"Sakura-chan!" His voice was scandalized.

"Oh shut up and help me. I can't move my back well enough to take this off by myself."

Underneath she had on her mesh shirt, which she used a kunai to cut off, not caring about it, and a black bandeau she left on. The ring on her necklace sparkled in the light.

Sasuke's sharp inhalation startled her. And she closed her eyes in irritation that she'd forgotten something so important.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto's voice was horrified and broke both her and Sasuke's concentration. She could hear as Sasuke took in another sharp inhalation at the sight of her back.

Mottled black and blue, it formed a sickening pattern on her skin. And because she was so pale, she bruised easily anyway. Both boys could see where the ridges of her spine stuck out, two of them with bruising that looked especially gruesome.

"It's all right Naruto. Now I need you to get me two mirrors so I can see how bad it is."

The blonde hesitated before complying. He scurried out of the room to go fulfill her request.

"Sakura." Sasuke's voice was tight with barely constrained anger.

"I know, Sasuke-kun. You still want to know how I got this ring?"

"Yes." The word was sharp, bitter as he bit out the confirmation.

Mint eyes, darkened to almost emerald, locked with sapphire onyx eyes. Rarely had she ever been close enough to see the blue flecks in his eyes, but she could see them clearly now. And the sight of them stole her breath away, reminding her of the last time she had been close enough to see them.

_Sakura..._

"Sakura." His voice, higher than the one in her memories startled her. And to her horror, she could feel tears making silent tracks down her cheeks. Her right hand shot up to clasp at the ring, imprinting it into her skin.

"I'm sorry Sasuke-kun. I _can't_ tell you. At least not now. Not when we're on a mission and we have other things to focus on."

He didn't look pleased with her answer but accepted it nonetheless. "But you _will_ tell me?"

"Yes."

His look was doubtful and he opened his mouth to protest more when Naruto ran back into the room. His arms were filled with two large mirrors.

"HERE SAKURA-CHAN. HERE. WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO WITH THEM? WHY ARE YOU CRYING? SASUKE!"

"First, calm down. It's alright. I'm alright. I just reached for something too far and strained a cracked bone, that's all. Now, put one mirror behind me. And put the other one close in front of me so I can see the damage."

Naruto kept a horrified look on his face as she casually mentioned a cracked bone. He struggled to set one of the mirrors in the back of her while Sasuke helped her adjust her body position so she could see better in the mirror in front of her. She rolled her eyes, slightly warmed by the thought of their concern but mostly irritated. She understood, but even if they didn't know it, she'd been through _much _worse.

She looked at her reflection, wide eyes in a pale and tired face. Long stringy pink locks hanging limply. She looked like a waif. It was no wonder the boys were worried about her.

Seeing the reflection, Sakura could tell that it wasn't her T5 and T6 as she'd believed, but her T6 and T7. She concentrated, green chakra being brought to life in her hands.

"Whoah, Sakura-chan. What are you doing?"

Sakura ignored Naruto to slowly bring the glowing green hand to her back, not quite touching the worst of the injuries. The green light reflected off of blue and black eyes, taking in how the bruising faded before them.

Sakura ran her hands up her torso as far as she could reach before bringing them over her shoulders to get a better angle.

When she was done, her back was smooth once more. No bones protruding any more than they should be and her skin unblemished save for the shadows of a few birthmarks.

Done with her back she raised her hand to her head, soothing away the lingering pain and ridding herself of the slight concussion.

She checked her chakra levels, pleased that the healing hadn't taken much more than a quarter of her chakra. Normally it would have taken the merest fraction of that, but only a month ago it would have taken nearly all of it. She was improving.

Smiling, she stood up slowly.

"SAKURA-CHAN! THAT WAS SO COOL! HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"

"Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Well, you know I've been studying on my own. I've also been spending some time at the hospital. Getting some 'practical training'." Sakura answered as she raised an arched eyebrow at the Uchiha, who looked away from her.

"C'mon then. Is Kakashi-sensei awake, do you know?"

"I don't think he is yet." Sasuke stated.

"So what have you been doing, waiting for us to wake up?"

"Sparring mostly. Making sure the bridge builder doesn't get himself killed."

"Yeah! He went to a few houses today and we acted as his bodyguards as he gathered people together to work on the bridge again. You should've seen us Sakura-chan. We were awesome."

Sakura murmured an agreement as she pulled her hair back sloppily before putting her vest top back on and then her boots.

"Where are you going?"

She turned back to Sasuke.

"Out to see if there are any herbs nearby I can use. I don't have what I want here in my bag because they're better if found fresh."

"You're going to just go out by yourself? After having just been healed?"

"Yeah Sakura-chan! You shouldn't be alone right now.

Sakura wanted to retort that the two of them had done it more times than she could count but she held her tongue.

"If you're going to act all macho-man, I-am-your protector, hear-me-roar, about it then one of you can come with. But one of you should stay here with Tazuna-san and Kakashi.

"Fine. Dobe, you stay here."

"Aw! Why me?!"

Sakura was stunned. She didn't exactly expect Sasuke to volunteer. But then, she hadn't known Sasuke very well at this age had she? And in the early stages of their team, he _had_ brought it upon himself to protect her. To protect all of them, really. But she was the one who had needed protecting the most.

"Ok then. Let's go." Her voice was soft, and her smile even softer as they stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the house.

* * *

"So what do you need?"

They'd gone about ten minutes into the forest in a slightly strained silence, before Sasuke's voice split the air between them.

"Hmm? Oh, I definitely want to find some mint to make tea for Kakashi-sensei. I asked Tazuna-san before we left and he told me there was a large patch around here somewhere. I'm sure Kakashi-sensei's fatigued from that battle and fresh mint is always better for that. Also, I'll probably add in the ground ginger from earlier. Maybe ginseng. If you could help me find some of that, I can look for anything else that might seem helpful."

He nodded in response looking around them as Sakura gave a little squeak of happiness, having found a thistle patch.

"Sakura? Hey, Sakura! I thought we were out here to pick herbs! Not to pick weeds!"

"Oh look Sasuke-kun! Dandelions!"

He sighed in irritation as she whipped between the plants, collecting thistles and dandelions into the largest bouquet of weeds he'd ever seen. There were times he thought that Sakura seemed mature and stable. She'd improved so much from the girl she'd been in the Academy. She'd definitely impressed him earlier when she'd healed herself so easily.

But there were times when Sakura was infuriating. Mysterious with all of her secrets. And was it just that morning that they'd come to a sort of understanding? Just that morning when she'd cried on his shirt and told him that she had secrets she couldn't tell?

He grit his teeth in frustration. He deserved to know dammit. If for nothing else, he deserved to know why Sakura carried his mother's ring around her neck.

However, then there were times when she acted like the air headed 12 year old she used to be. Like now.

He watched for a few more moments as she danced in the sunlight, surrounded by overgrown weeds. At one point, she started digging in the ground, uprooting the largest of the thistle plants. Weird girl. No weirder than normal, no weirder than she used to be. But weird in different ways and annoying in a million other.

At the very least she wasn't hanging over his arm begging him for a date anymore.

Noticing a mint patch farther away he headed over with the large basket they'd brought to go collect some.

* * *

When she was done, Sakura dropped the whole load into the basket. Her cheek was smudged with dirt where she'd tried to smooth her hair back from her face. But she was satisfied. The mint, along with the herbs she'd brought with her would help Kakashi. The dandelions and thistle were a good start for helping Tazuna's liver.

She also remembered the empty shelves that should have been filled with food, both in the house and in the market. And now Tazuna's family had to feed four more mouths.

The roots of both plants would help to feed them as well as some wild beets she'd found. The beets were the real goldmine and they would be even better for Tazuna-san's liver than the other two plants.

"Alright Sasuke-kun. I think I've got everything I need. How much mint did you get?"

She looked to the amount he gathered, more than enough to brew tea for all of them for a month and still have some leftover. She made a mental note to tell Tazuna-san's daughter to dry and store them.

"Great! The Land of Waves has rivers running all throughout the island and I think I heard one about a quarter mile east. Let's go wash up and see if we can find some fish for dinner ok?"

Sakura skipped around, turning to the direction of the rushing water. Secure in the knowledge that they would have a few days to catch their breath, Sakura let herself be a little more peppy than one would expect after being attacked.

They reached the river in no time and Sakura could see a school of fish shining in the sunlight. She motioned to Sasuke to put down the basket and in no time, had stripped down to her shorts and bandeau.

"Sakura!" For the second time that day, Sakura heard her name called in a scandalized tone.

She swiveled her head to see Sasuke pointedly looking away, a soft flush on his cheeks, but an angry glare on his face. Sakura could see he wanted to confront her about the ring again. But his embarrassment won out. Hanging on a long chain around her neck, Sakura had tucked the ring into her bandeau, nestled comfortably in what little cleavage she had.

Turning around, she purposefully misinterpreted his angry gaze.

"Ok, unless _you_ want to go for a dip in the river, I suggest dealing with my lack of covering. Besides, I need to wash up anyway. And while I go in and disturb the fishes, you can catch them with your kunai. Alright?"

Without waiting for an answer, Sakura dived into the river. Expecting the water to be freezing cold, she was pleasantly surprised at the mildness of the temperature. She stayed under a moment longer than she'd planned before heading straight for the school of fish.

Disrupting the school and forcing a couple up to the surface, Sakura could hear the _thunk!_ of three kunai hitting a tree trunk. She came up to the surface briefly before diving under again. They repeated this until Sakura deemed they had enough fish to feed all of them. Even Naruto.

Before leaving the riverbank, she carefully cleaned the dirt from the vegetables and then put back on her outer layers over her damp underthings. Sasuke had strung the fish together with some wire and he hefted that over his shoulder while she picked up the basket filled with vegetables.

Together they walked in mostly companionable silence back toward Tazuna's house.

* * *

As they walked back in, Naruto came rushing towards them.

"Kakashi-sensei's awake! And he says he has something really important to tell us!"

Sasuke nodded in wordless affirmative, heading straight of the room. Naruto made to follow him, but hesitated when he saw Sakura reach for the teapot instead.

"Sakura-chan? Aren't you coming?"

"I will Naruto. Just a second. Let me make this tea for Kakashi-sensei real quick."

Still the blonde hesitated. Torn between wanting to get back to where "real" ninja work was happening with the sensei and wanting to watch his friend maybe do some cool stuff again. Eventually, "real" ninja work won out and he left Sakura humming to herself in the kitchen.

Working at a leisurely pace and mixing together all ingredients, Sakura let herself take a sip of the tea before going into Kakashi's room. She scrunched her nose at the foul taste but decided that Kakashi would just have to suck it up and drink it anyway. She'd long learned how to cook and how to stop forcing medicine and herbs into every single dish, but sometimes, like now, she would still go overboard.

"Kakashi-sensei? How are you feeling? I've got some tea for you. It should help."

"Ah, good. Sakura. How are you feeling? You were more injured than I was after all."

"IT WAS SO COOL SENSEI! SAKURA MADE ALL OF HER INJURIES GO AWAY JUST LIKE THAT." The overeager blond snaps his fingers to emphasize his point.

"Ah. Really?" Kakashi trains one tired eye on his pink-haired student, noting the ease of her gait and her sense of balance. "Well, you're turning out to be quite the medical ninja aren't you Sakura?"

The two shared a knowing smile. Sakura set down the tea tray next to him and poured him a cup full to the brim.

"I'm warning you now. It not very tasty, but you have to drink all of it. I even brought you some honey to sweeten it."

Kakashi looked warily between her and the tea, set on top of a hot plate set to the lowest setting in order to keep it warm.

He nodded reluctantly.

"Alright, alright already! Come on Kakashi-sensei! Finish what you were telling us! You said something about Zabuza and that tracker ninja!"

"Alright. As I was saying. Zabuza is still alive."

"WHAT? But you checked his pulse! You said he was dead!"

Kakashi turned one grave eye to Naruto.

"Naruto, Sasuke, do you remember what kind of weapon the tracker ninja used to take down Zabuza?"

Sasuke looked down in pensive thought before his eyes widened.

"Senbon. Like the one's Sakura used earlier."

"Exactly. Only I'm willing to bet his weren't poisoned. Senbon are rarely fatal by themselves unless they hit a vital organ deep enough."

Kakashi turned then to Sakura who had stayed still, waiting.

"Sakura," Kakashi grabbed her hand, bringing two of her fingers to the side of his neck. "What would happen to a person if they were hit with senbon here, and here?"

Sakura closed her eyes. She knew the answer already, but wanted to put thought behind her answer, rather than merely re-iterate what had already been said.

"If the tracker ninja wanted to keep Zabuza alive, the neck would be the perfect spot to hit with a senbon. In the hands of a skilled user, senbon can be absolutely accurate. The neck has no thick layer of fat or muscle to stop a senbon from directly hitting the pressure points."

She took another moment to look at her teammates.

"Those two specific pressure points would put Zabuza into a temporary death state. I'd estimate that he has already awakened. However," Sakura brow scrunched a little in concentration, trying to calculate in her mind the possibilities, "being put so forcefully into a death state takes a toll on the body. He shouldn't be able to move his body for roughly a week. Two at the most but three days at the soonest. And I'd put my money on sooner rather than later."

She raised her head to look at her teammates. Sasuke looked calm, but his eyes were lit up. And Naruto was barely able to contain his enthusiasm.

They were _excited. _Zabuza being alive gave them the chance to fight him again.

Kakashi sighed in faux resignation. He, too, could see the burning desire in both of the boys for a re-match.

"So, first things first. We'll need to do a little more training. If Zabuza's coming back, we'll need to be ready."

"Yeah! Training! Now just you wait Kakashi-sensei! From here on out, things are gonna get better! BELIEVE IT!"

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT! And nothing's ever gonna get any better!"

Everyone in the room save Tazuna jumped at the addition of the new voice. As one they all swiveled their heads to see a little boy in overalls and a hat on his head.

"Inari! Come here!" Tazuna's voice held the most warmth they'd ever heard from him.

"Welcome back Grandpa!" Inari ran straight into his beloved grandfather's arms.

"Inari!" Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter and Inari's mother, scolded him. "That was very rude! These ninja helped bring your grandfather home safely! You should apologize!"

"But Mom! These ninja can't do anything! Gato will kill them!"

Tazuna grinned proudly at his grandson. "Ah, it's alright! I'm rude to them too!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at the little boy sticking his tongue out at them.

"Oh please. We've dealt with worse than Gato."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at her while Kakashi smiled behind his mask. Naruto looked confusedly in her direction.

"We have...? Yeah! We have! Believe it kid! Don't worry about us! We're heroes!"

Inari's eyes frosted over and he turned his back on them. "There's no such thing as a hero. You should go back to wherever you came from before you get killed." He opened the sliding door, leaving as quickly as he'd come in. "I'm going to go look out over the ocean. Nobody disturb me 'cuz I wanna be alone."

Naruto fairly vibrated with rage at the flippant way the boy could brush off his claim to heroism so easily. He pushed off Sakura's hand on his shoulder and took off after Inari.

"I'll teach that brat a lesson! Heroes DO exist!"

The hyperactive blonde chased after him. The room was left with an awkward silence.

"Sorry about him. He just gets upset easily."

Knowing the whole story, Sakura nodded before standing up.

"Tsunami-san? Sasuke-kun and I have brought back a lot of herbs and a sizable amount of fish for dinner tonight. I've put the fish in the fridge but the herbs are still on the dining table. Do you want me to move them somewhere?"

Sasuke snorted at Sakura's use of the term "herbs".

"She means weeds. Sakura must have pulled up a whole patch of thistle and dandelions."

"Dandelions and thistles? What are you going to do with those girlie?" Tazuna questioned her before pulling out another bottle and taking a healthy swig from it.

Sakura's eye twitched in anger, "Why is everyone calling me 'girlie' or 'little girl'? Seriously?! It's degrading and completely insulting. Is it my pink hair? My high-pitched voice? I may be the youngest on the squad but that doesn't mean anything. Of course, I'm female so that automatically means anyone can call me all sort of cutesy nicknames."

She stomped over to him, snatching the bottle out of his hands, "And for your information, dandelions and thistle are very good for liver problems. As well as the beets I found. I can make a nice stir fry tonight with those that will help keep you from dying of alcohol poisoning if you would just _stop drinking._"

Well into her irate tirade mode, she swiveled her head to focus livid eyes on her next target: Kakashi

"And you! You better drink that whole pot of tea before we go out to train. _The whole thing._ You do not know the pain you will be in if I find that you've poured any of it out."

Head high she turned to Tsunami, "Pardon me for intruding on your kitchen once more. I'll go put away those _herbs_ until later. Feel free to do what you like to the fish but please leave the herbs for me to cook for dinner." She gave a gracious bow before gracefully exiting the room.

Tazuna laughed uproariously as soon as the door shut. "I said it before but I'll say it again. That girl has fire in her! I like her!"

* * *

**I felt this was a good place to stop. A little bit of plot thrown in mixed with some filler. I like it like that. I like the little scenes: Sakura healing herself, Sasuke and Sakura going out to find dinner. Those scenes interest me, but sorry if you're looking for something faster. Like I said, I'm in this for the long haul. Hope you guys don't mind keeping up with me :D**

**ALSO:**

** MORE DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. I am not studying medicine. Everything I am portraying here and will try to portray in the future has and will be researched, like all of those herbs and medicine and the symptoms of injuries. Did you know that dandelion root and thistle root are supposed to be good for your liver? It's true. But if I make a mistake please understand. **


	7. Climbing Trees and Solidifying Bonds

**Chapter 7**

* * *

Eventually Team 7 made it out to a wide grassy area with tall, tall trees surrounding them.

True to his word, Kakashi had choked down the whole pot of odious tea Sakura had brewed for him as well as taken a pill of mysterious origin Sakura insisted he take. He suspected it was a soldier pill of some sort, but Sakura had been purposefully cagey about it. It was just as likely to have been a placebo sugar pill meant to psych him out. Regardless, everything Sakura had given him was helping and he barely needed the crutches he was leaning on now.

Sasuke stayed at least three steps away from the rosette maiden, still nearly incandescent in her feminine rage against men for looking down on her. Her eyes held no patience in them and even he was wise enough to not provoke her any further.

Naruto, oblivious as ever looked excited to just be out in the sunshine with the promise of training.

"Alright! Training! Let's get started!"

"Ok then. First, we should begin with a review of chakra. Understanding chakra is essential to a shinobi."

"BLAH BAH BLAH. Elemental life energy, spiritual energy and physical energy and being in balance with one another and using hand signs as a conduit for the focus of the chakra to be unleashed, WE GET IT ALREADY! LET'S SKIP TO THE GOOD STUFF."

Naruto waved away any explanation Sakura or Kakashi might have given, impatient in his haste to learn something new.

"For once, I agree with Naruto. We already know this stuff."

"AND BESIDES. ISN'T THE WHOLE POINT TO LEARN THE JUTSU? WE'RE ALREADY USING CHAKRA IN OUR JUTSUS ANYWAY."

Standing side by side, it was likely the very first time Sasuke and Naruto had ever been on the same side about something. Each of them looked to Kakashi with quirked brows and tense shoulders.

"NO. You haven't mastered it. You've barely scratched the surface."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

"Calm down Naruto. Let Kakashi-sensei finish." Sakura could only stand so much it before she snapped at him. "He's trying to say something important."

"Thank you, Sakura. What I'm trying to say is that every different type of jutsu needs a different amount of chakra for it. Remember that chakra is both physical and spiritual energy. Up until now you've just been guessing at what ratio of chakra to use, hoping that it would turn out all right. What I'm going to show you know is how to start _controlling it._"

Kakashi, not one to give up an opportunity for theatrics, bowed his head, "In order to find this control you must train so hard that it becomes second nature. You must be ready... to put your lives on the line."

Sakura rolled her eyes, a small smile on her face. But she could see how Naruto tensed with a nervous gulp and how even Sasuke looked mildly enraptured, curious about what Kakashi would tell them to do.

"So sensei, what do we have to do?" Sakura fed him the setup for the punchline with a deliberately bored tone of voice.

Kakashi raised his head smiling widely at them all and chuckling softly. "Climb a tree."

"CLIMB A TREE?"

"What?"

"Of course we do."

"That's right. But there's just one rule. No hands."

"NO HANDS?"

"Naruto! Stop yelling and repeating everything!"

Kakashi cleared his throat for attention. "Yes, well. I'm sure you've seen Sakura doing her chakra exercises during training back home? Why don't you lead this lesson today, Sakura?"

Sakura nodded, "Well, I've been practicing my chakra control and I've got a fairly good grip on it. Chakra control is very important for a medical ninja, but according to some of the doctors, I have a natural talent for it." _Psh, understatement. _

"Take my word for this, it's not as easy as it looks." Sakura took in Naruto's wide expectant eyes and Sasuke's disbelieving stare.

She made a show of breathing in deeply, concentrating and bringing chakra to her feet. She then walked calmly over to a tree, placing one foot above the other until she reached a high bough. Walking underneath the bough she looked back at her team completely upside down, a small smile on her face.

"Whoa! Sakura-chan! You climbed straight up!"

Sakura's smile morphed into a full out grin. "Focus your chakra to the soles of your feet. Then you can use it to connect to the tree."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he tipped his face up to her.

"Hn. Nice trick Sakura, but how is this supposed to help exactly?"

Sakura worked her jaw a bit, wanting to not get riled up. "Doing this exercise causes you to focus, using a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy you'll have to bring a precise amount of chakra to a precise point on your body: the soles of your feet."

"Sakura's right," Kakashi chimed in, "If you can master this skill, you can master any jutsu - well in theory."

"And it's not just bringing your chakra to your feet, but about maintaining it as well. It'll be even more difficult in battle when you'll have to focus on other things. Controlling your chakra should become second nature to you."

Sakura pulled two kunai knives from her holster and threw them. They each landed right in front of the boys.

"Use the kunai to mark the tree when you get to your highest point. Then, try again. And again. And again. Until you get as far as you can. Use a running start to give you momentum until you get used to it."

Naruto snatched up the kunai in front of him, a fierce glower on his face. "Don't worry about me Sakura-chan! I'm gonna go all the way. Believe it!"

Sasuke locked eyes with Sakura, promising her in silent gestures that he too was going to try his best, echoing Naruto's sentiment. Then, the two rivals exchanged glares before closing their eyes in concentration.

Sakura reached up, letting go of the branch by the soles of her feet, only to swing herself up by her hands. She settled herself comfortably against the trunk in order to watch their progress. She saw Kakashi's exposed eye focused on the two as well.

"RAAHHH." Naruto ran headfirst into the tree, getting almost the same reaction as he had the first time Sakura remembered him trying this. However, this time around, he got more than just 2 steps in. He managed to make it up the tree at least a good three feet before losing control and falling back down.

Sakura shifted to see Sasuke's progress. He was doing well. Almost three stories up before the bark underneath his feet cracked due to too much chakra pressure. She could practically hear his mind racing, figuring out what he had done wrong and comparing it to Naruto's attempt and Sakura's ease.

A sharp ache echoed in Sakura's chest.

From above like this, without being able to see the color of his eyes, Sasuke looked like Satoshi, give or take an inch or two. She chuckled a little sadly to herself at how strong the Uchiha genes must be. Satoshi looked exactly like his father. Did Sasuke look like his father? She wondered.

She'd been able to push most of her longing away but sometimes it hit her too hard. Her hand reached up to her necklace.

And now this.

She knew she wouldn't be able to keep the ring a secret for long. But how was she supposed to explain to Sasuke why she had it?

"Sakura."

Her head snapped up. Kakashi's eye looked into hers. Sometime during her internal debate, he had come up to sit beside her, his crutches across his lap.

"Yes?" Sakura shook her head softly, refocusing her attention to her boys. Judging from the marks on the tree, Sasuke looked to be on his fourth attempt and Naruto on his seventh.

"What's wrong?" Kakashi's solemn eye brooked no argument and making sure that the two others were sufficiently distracted, Sakura began in a small voice,

"I just... Lots of things? It's _hard _Kakashi. Like that fight with Zabuza. I could have beat him. I _should _have been able to take him. At least put up a better fight. But I had to hold back. And that's part of the problem. How much do I hold back? How much do I give? How do I keep the balance and still change enough to make a difference? This was a one-time shot. If I mess up, I mess up and the future is... left without hope. And I know I'm not doing well so far. I- I- just can't. Naruto and Sasuke both suspect something. Sasuke more than Naruto."

She deliberately left out mention of the ring, even though she knew Kakashi knew it's importance to her. The only thing she brought back with her and the only physical reminder left of a future that shouldn't exist.

"And my _son_ Kakashi. I love my son more than anything. But what if he's never born? What if... what if he never comes into existence? Will all I'll be left with is memories from another lifetime? I just..."

Sakura's mouth snapped shut when she felt herself blink back the sting of tears once more. She breathed deeply, concentrating on keeping taking even breaths. In order to distract herself, she turned her head to look at Naruto. Ten feet up and still going.

Kakashi's hand landed on her head, comforting. Because Kakashi was never good with females. Especially teenage females. Especially _crying _teenage females. But he's there. And he's alive. And even if he doesn't understand fully what she's trying to say or what she's feeling, he's _there. _

Sakura turned into Kakashi's hand, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek before moving to walk down.

"Thanks Kakashi. I'll go and try to give the boys some more advice. You sit and rest some more."

Halfway down she stopped and turned around to face him again.

"Wait. Why do I feel like _I'm _the sensei on this team sometimes?" Sakura called out.

Kakashi's only response was to smile slightly and to reply, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Sakura."

"Lazy ass." Sakura muttered under her breath before smiling widely. "Naruto! Come here! I've got some advice for you."

Kakashi's sharp eye took in Naruto's gleeful smile and Sasuke's quick pivot to face Sakura. He saw how Naruto bounded over, eager for advice. Saw Sasuke's scowl deepen and his fists clenched before turning away.

Interesting. Kakashi wondered if that was for Naruto's sake or Sakura's.

Sakura sat down with Naruto as Sasuke attempted to climb the tree once more. Kakashi couldn't hear their hushed voices but he could read Sakura's lips telling Naruto to slow down, concentrate, don't get too worked up, try to maintain an even stream of chakra, forget about Sasuke and focus on yourself.

Naruto nodded, taking deep breaths like Sakura instructed before closing his eyes to try and focus himself.

Sakura smiled in satisfaction before moving over to where an agitated Sasuke had fallen once more.

* * *

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura skipped over lightly to the Uchiha only to be met with a sharp glare

"What?" Sasuke bit out at her.

Sakura's smile dropped into an irritated frown of her own.

"I only want to help Sasuke. You don't need to bite my head off."

"I don't need your help."

Sakura's lips thinned. Was it only that morning the they'd come to some sort of understanding? Was it only that morning that Sasuke had reprimanded her for her lack of teamwork?

"Sasuke-kun, you may be the number one rookie of our year, you may be a natural genius at a lot of things, and you may be the great Uchiha Sasuke, beloved of all the fangirls in Konoha, but not even you can get everything perfectly right the very first time. Or the second. Or even the third."

Sakura spoke gently. Her hand reached out to him. Sasuke's eye narrowed at her, wanting to protest, and the corner of his lip curled.

"Look, you want to know what your problem is?"

"What?" He snapped sharply.

She put her hands on his shoulders, reaching up only slightly, and looked him in the eyes. She could see the way his eyes flickered over her shoulder to gauge Naruto's progress. Exasperated, she turned him around so that his back was to the blonde boy.

"I'm gonna give you the same advice I gave Naruto. Slow down. Focus on yourself. It doesn't matter how Naruto's doing. I know you want to make everything a part of your rivalry, and Kakashi probably provokes you purposefully to light a fire under your asses, but honestly? We have the time now and if you're able to do this without wanting to slit Naruto's throat, all the better."

She smiled up at him, letting her hands fall.

"I know it's not your style, but try it. Kay?" Sakura made to move past him but Sasuke caught her by the wrist.

"Sakura?" His voice was softer, with a hard edge to it. It sounded reluctant. But because it was Sasuke and Sasuke was Sasuke was Sasuke was Sasuke was _Sasuke _who had given her Satoshi but not yet (_or maybe not ever?) _Sakura turned back around to answer him.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

She could see the way his jaw was clenched a bit, how he was working it from side to side before he opened his mouth to ask her,

"Can you show it to me again?"

Warm happiness suffused her being.

"Of course, Sasuke-kun!"

Kakashi's ever watchful eye continued to document every moment in front of him. Though Sakura missed it, he caught the smirk Sasuke aimed towards Naruto. Had the other boy caught it as well? Yes, it seemed he did.

* * *

By the end of the day, with Sakura's help, the boys could reach more than halfway up the trees with a good running start. They still didn't have the ease that Sakura controlled her chakra with, but then very few people did even after a lifetime of chakra control.

However, Sasuke could still reach _just _a bit higher than Naruto and the two were at each other's necks once again. Although, to Sakura, it seemed it was somehow _more_ than just the tree-climbing exercise. It seemed like there was another factor fueling their feud. But she had been with both of them the whole time and there hadn't been any other incident. She watched as they scarfed down bowl after bowl of rice, fish, and stir fried vegetables. Another contest.

Back and forth the two went until Sakura could see they had reached their limit. Swiftly taking away the bowls, she reprimanded them,

"The two of you are going to puke if you keep eating! You'd think you'd be smarter than that!"

Sasuke and Naruto glared at her, then at each other. They opened their mouths to yell when they both gagged. Coughing harshly to the side, the boys struggled to breathe deeply without losing their dinner.

"I _have_ to eat." Sasuke ground out through clenched teeth. He glared at Naruto.

"And I have to eat _more than him_." Naruto fired back.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Without speaking, she pulled two pills rom her pouch and turned back to the stove to heat some more water. As the boys finished gagging, breathing deeply, Sakura put two cups of peppermint tea in front of them and gave them each a pill.

"Here. This should be soothing to your palate."

Dark eyes locked with bright blue ones and both immediately swallowed the pill, downing their cups of tea. Naruto slammed his cup back down, making everyone wince.

"THANK YOU SAKURA-CHAN. YOU'RE THE BEST. I APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU DO FOR ME. UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE. YOU'RE THE GREATEST FRIEND EVER."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he turned his head, not deigning to give a response to that. Sakura's eyebrow rose at the odd compliment.

"Okay...? Thank you?" Reaching over to help Tsunami clear up the other dishes, Sakura's eye was caught by Tazuna reaching into another cabinet for yet another bottle. Wordlessly she stomped over to him, grabbed the bottle out of his hands and sealed the cabinet closed.

"No alcohol means no alcohol, Tazuna-san. Even after I leave I'd like for you to cut down to a half a bottle a week. ONE BOTTLE AT MOST. And I want you to keep eating vegetables like these-"

"You mean weeds? I admit, girlie, that it was a pretty good meal, but you can't expect me to eat weeds everyday do you?"

"-VEGETABLES LIKE THESE." Sakura continued as if he hadn't said anything "And tomorrow morning before you go to work on the bridge, I'd like to conduct an examination of your liver. Well, as best as I can without performing surgery."

Everyone in the room shivered at Sakura's words. Her eyes glinted with a bright light and Naruto stood up, trying to inch away slowly out of the room before Sakura found some reason to use him as a surgical guinea pig. With the mood she was in now, there was no telling what she'd do next.

Instead of backing out of the room, Naruto hit the wall behind him, accidentally knocking off the lone picture on the wall.

The glass shattered making every head turn to him.

"Oh no!" It was Inari's voice that broke the silence. He tried rushing forward to scoop up the picture but was held back by Tsunami who didn't want him cutting himself on the glass.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Naruto winced as he saw how the broken glass was making nicks on the surface of the glossy photo.

Sakura grabbed a towel off the counter, scooping away the broken glass as Naruto saved the photo from the wreckage.

"Hey? Was this photo already torn? It looks like someone else was in this picture! Why is his face gone?"

Silence suffused the room. The whole family tensed and Kakashi's eye sharpened, his head coming up to attention.

Inari broke free and ran out of the room, tears already streaming down his face.

"Inari!" Tsunami ran after him.

Sakura continued to sweep up the broken glass as Tazuna sighed deeply, beginning the story of Kaiza and how Gato brought tragedy to their family. Listening absentmindedly to the story, she finished cleaning any pieces of stray glass and pulled out a tray from the cupboard.

On the tray, she put a sake cup and bottle which she filled from the large jug in the sealed cabinet.

Wordlessly she set the tray in front of Tazuna, who didn't pause in his story, but raised an eye at her. She shrugged in return.

"So that's it. Gato killed Kaiza. And now Inari doesn't believe in heroes anymore." He tok a long swig, forgoing the cup and draining the bottle. He took off his glasses to swipe at his wet eyes. "Hell, I don't even think I do either."

A soft growl made it's way to their ears.

Sakura turned her eyes to Naruto's trembling form. He backed away from the table, losing his balance in the progress.

"Naruto! You need to be careful. You've used up too much chakra today."

"NO! No, Sakura-chan! I'm gonna show him! Even if it means pushing myself to my absolute limits, I'm gonna show that kid what a real hero is! I'll show all of you what a real hero is!"

Though his whole body trembled from overexertion, Naruto still stood tall with a light glowing in his eyes.

And Sakura is so grateful that she can appreciate this moment, and all of Naruto's heroic moments to come.

* * *

Of course his body gave out on him, begging for rest. Sakura reached out to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Naruto, you're such a loser."

Sasuke's dull voice reached her ears, commanding her attention. She looked up to meets Sasuke's dark, condescending eyes.

"Yeah, well... You've got to give him credit for sheer knuckle headed perseverance. And besides. He may be a loser, but he's _our _loser."

Kakashi smiled at her over the top of his book while Tazuna rolled his eyes, trying to find more alcohol in his sake bottle. Sasuke did not deign to give her a reply, but stood up as she did and threw Naruto's other arm over his own shoulders.

Together, the two of them dragged their blonde idiot to their sleeping quarters.

"Sasuke-kun? Do you really not believe in Naruto? Do you really not think that he'll show everyone what a hero he could be?"

Again he was silent. The silence stretched on through the hallway and into the room they dumped him in. Sakura pursed her lips in frustration at being ignored. She opened her mouth to try and rephrase her question when the older boy answered her.

"The dobe will always be a dobe. Doesn't matter what he does from now on."

His words were harsh, but the tone was light. And Sakura had gotten very good at reading underneath the underneath. Her eyes filled with happiness, lightening to a clear, clear green.

Sasuke didn't look back at her, but he didn't have to. She was content in the knowledge that this day, this crazy, stressful, wonderful day, Sasuke solidified his bonds with his team.

* * *

**I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know this is really much shorter than I usually do for a chapter, but this felt like such a good ending place. Plus, I've come to the end of my stash of future chapters and if I didn't upload this now you likely would not have gotten this until Monday. On that note, I'm warning you right now, next week will likely be late. Expect a Saturday or Sunday update next week. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. **

**Finals are right around the corner and I have spent every night this week (from 5-12) in rehearsal for a play I'm in and we perform tonight and tomorrow. Why is my life a mess?!**

**Please enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think!**

**Kiki**


	8. When You Care for Someone

**Chapter 8**

* * *

Three days had passed. And Naruto still refused to give up, wearing himself out during the day and continuing on until the dawn. Kakashi sighed, but made no move to stop him. Kakashi took over watching Tazuna during the day and, against his better judgement, left Sakura to watch over the boys.

It was against his better judgement because Sakura seemed to have become another part of the boy's rivalry.

"Sakura-chan! Look! I've almost got it!"

Naruto leaned heavily against the trunk next to him, more than 3/4 up the tree. Sakura could see how hard he was working and how much of a toll it was taking on him. She felt extremely proud to be able to say she had a hand in it. She beamed up at him, ready to give praise-

Until he decided to fall that is.

"Naruto watch out!"

Sakura could see the panic on his face as his footing slipped and he headed straight down,

"AH!"

Sakura ran forward to try and catch him when a quick flash of dark blue appeared in the corner of her eye. Sasuke ran up one tree, using it as leverage and jumping across to grab the other boy by the ankle.

"You really are a loser, Naruto."

He stood there, cool as ever, hanging upside down from the tree branch as Naruto swing lazily side to side.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Sakura put a hand to her chest, breathing a sigh of relief. Both boys had progressed significantly faster than the first time she remembered them doing this. But that also meant both had taken to showboating in front of her.

"Alright you guys. That's enough for today, I think."

"WHAT? BUT SAKURA-CHAN. IT'S STILL LIGHT OUT."

Naruto's face took on an impressive pout.

"I know Naruto, but dinner needs to get started soon and I'd rather not leave the two of you alone together. You're likely to kill each other."

"WELL I'M NOT GOING."

"If the dobe's not finished yet, then neither am I."

Sakura's eye twitched in mounting anger.

"LOOK. YOU ARE COMING BACK WITH ME AND HELPING ME COOK DINNER WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT BECAUSE I WILL NOT HAVE US FREELOADING THE WHOLE TIME WE'RE HERE. NOW."

Her foot came down _hard_, with a little bit of chakra thrown in. The trees surrounding them all swayed violently and Naruto's face paled before turning a sickening shade of green as Sasuke swayed with the trees movements. Even the dark haired boy's face was apprehensive at what he was now starting to recognize as the precursor to Hurricane Sakura.

"O... Ok, Sakura-chan. I'll do whatever you say. I'll go with you. Besides, I don't even need to train anymore today. We can just leave stinky old Sasuke here by himself! He needs the extra time to work anyway!"

"Hn." Sasuke threw the blonde boy up onto the branch above them, lightly jumping down to stand next to Sakura.

"Dobe. If anything, you're the one who still needs to stay behind and keep working. If you haven't noticed, you still haven't caught up with me." He smirked up at Naruto, whose face was growing redder by the moment.

"ARGH! SASUKE! JUST YOU WAIT! I'M GONNA STAY OUT HERE ALL NIGHT IF I HAVE TO! AND I'LL CATCH UP WITH YOU NO PROBLEM! BELIEVE IT!"

Sakura leaned against the trunk of the tree next to her, banging her head.

"Sasuke-kkkuuuunnnn. Why? Why would you provoke him like that? Did neither of you hear my first lesson about forgetting what the other one was doing and focus just on yourself?"

"Psh. If the dobe can't handle it then thats not my problem."

Sasuke turned his back on an irate Naruto and started walking leisurely away. Sakura looked up to an angry blonde still spewing curses and Believe It!'s and Dattebayo!'s at the Uchiha's back. She then looked to Sasuke who turned around to look back at her.

"Well? Are you coming or not?"

She nodded a bit hesitantly before turning back to Naruto.

"Naruto! WHen you get hungry just come back to the house ok? Don't stay out too late and be careful out here by yourself! Don't overdo it!"

She skipped over to where Sasuke had paused in his steps before the two of them set off together. Sasuke snorted a bit at her words.

"Like he keeps saying, he's not a kid anymore. I think he can handle a few hours out here by himself."

Sakura pursed her lips a bit before answering, "I know that. But... y'know? He's been alone his whole life. It doesn't hurt to show some concern. Besides, I really do worry when he's out here by himself. Or you. Or even Kakashi. I just don't want anything to happen to you guys. Y'know?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes but accepted her answer easily.

"Whatever."

And with that eloquent comeback, the two made their way back to Tazuna's house in relative silence, punctuated only by Sakura's exclamations upon finding more "herbs".

...

The next morning found the majority of Team Seven at the breakfast table. A teammate was missing and he was the most conspicuous one of them all.

"Did Naruto never come home last night?" Sakura looked at Kakashi for an answer, knowing that Sasuke wouldn't answer a question so obvious.

"Well, Sakura, it seems so."

She huffed in reply, "Honestly! That boy is gonna run himself into the ground. Staying out all night climbing trees." She finished her meal quickly, grabbing a muffin and a couple of apples and stuffing them into her pockets, "I'll go find him and bring him these. He must be starving right now."

Sakura carded her hand through her loose hair before lazily using her hitae-ate as a headband, leaving the rest of her hair long and loose as was her preferred hairstyle in her first lifetime. She told herself she'd put it up later in the day, but it was fine for now.

Her thoughts as she made her way into the forest continued in this fashion, matters that weren't immediately distressing; hair, dinner that night, the boy's rivalry, Tazuna's liver. It wasn't until she got about three miles in did she sense someone's chakra. Someone besides Naruto. Her head snapped up to meet cold brown eyes.

In front of her was a person with long dark hair and feminine features.

Haku.

He carried with him a basket full of herbs Sakura recognized for paralysis treatment. With those herbs and depending on how fast Zabuza healed - Sakura was willing to bet fairly fast - they would likely attack within the next day or two.

Nevertheless, Sakura offered a smile at him. This could be her chance to find out more about him before the attack. Stopping in front of the taller boy she gave a pleasant, "Good morning."

"Good morning."

Haku seemed a little startled at her greeting but accepted it easily. Sakura wondered if he recognized her. She wasn't supposed to recognize him. Not when she had passed out before he had arrived.

"Have you seen my friend? Blonde? Wears an obnoxious shade of orange? Always seems like he's just taken an expresso shot straight to the heart?"

Haku smiled at that. A real one. And it took Sakura's breath away a bit.

"Yes. He's sitting over there about a quarter mile back. He said he's been training hard to become stronger. But he was kind enough to pause and help me gather my herbs."

Sakura took the opening he gave.

"Oh, are you a medic too? I'm training to be one! I want to be the best medic in the world!"

"Oh!" Haku startled a little. "Well, yes. A friend of mine is sick. And I'm hoping these will help."

He looked back in the direction he said Naruto was.

"So I guess your goal is to become stronger as well then?"

Sakura furrowed her brow at the change of topic.

"Stronger?"

"Yes. Your friend was talking about becoming stronger. Strong enough so that no one would look down on him anymore. What's your reason for wanting to get stronger?"

Sakura's eyes saddened at Naruto's rationale for wanting to get stronger. And they got sadder still when Haku asked for hers. His own sharp eyes didn't miss the way her eyes dimmed and she looked away from him.

"Because I have someone precious to me. I want to get stronger to help and protect that precious someone." She finally looked back at him, a small smile on her face. "I think that when you have someone precious to you, that's when you can find true strength."

Haku's mouth opened slightly at this girl's words. This girl whose philosophy matched his almost word for word. The orange boy had been a little amusing and his enthusiasm and earnestness had been endearing. But this cotton candy haired girl _understood_. Even if she didn't know his story and even if he didn't truly know hers, there was something about her that felt kindred. He closed his mouth before responding,

"I agree with you completely. I, too, have someone precious to me. And I, too, would like to find the strength to protect them."

He paused a bit, thinking it over, before extending his hand. Maybe he was making a mistake. But he didn't feel as if he would regret this later,

"My name is Haku. It's very nice to meet you."

Sakura's blossoming smile was as warm as the sun as she took his hand in hers,

"I'm Sakura. It's very nice to meet you Haku-san."

Something had happened. Something she didn't expect. But hearing the way he said he had someone precious to him. And remembering the way he had sacrificed himself for Zabuza's sake before, Sakura felt a connection. An odd one, forged through their mutual desire for one who wasn't good for them, but a connection nonetheless. And, for the first time, Sakura was disheartened by the prospect of the upcoming battle.

The loss of this seemingly gentle boy who was acting under the same philosophy she lived by would hurt her heart. But who knows what kind of havoc could be wreaked if the two outlaws were allowed to live?

Another conundrum added to the list. But Sakura accepted it. She bowed slightly in respect as they said their goodbyes and her respect was returned. She'd learned a little about him, but not exactly what she'd expected.

* * *

She found Naruto sitting in a patch of the herbs that Haku had had in his basket, staring off in the distance, a slightly horrified look on his face. He didn't seem to register her presence at first. It took her a good fifteen minutes and snapping, clapping, and yelling in his face before she was reduced to slapping the back of his head.

"SAKURA-CHAN. OW THAT HURT. YOU'RE REALLY STRONG DID YOU KNOW THAT? AH! STRONG! DID YOU SEE THAT PRETTY LADY WHO JUST LEFT HERE! SHE WAS REALLY PRETTY! BUT SHE WASN'T A SHE! SHE WAS A HE! HOW DID HE GET SO PRETTY! I THOUGHT HE WAS A GIRL!"

Sakura clapped her hands over her ears to try and muffle the noise before resorting to stuffing the muffin in her pocket into his mouth.

"MMMPPHH. SHAH-KURA-SHAN?"

"Sshh, Naruto. Indoor voice remember? I brought you that muffin and some apples. I figured you were hungry."

"PHHAANKS SHAH-KURA-SHAN!"

"Naruto! Chew and swallow! Seriously. Ew."

The two of them chatted amiably together as Sakura handed him apples one by one. An hour passed this way and the apples were eaten.

Finally Naruto leaned back in contentment. He tilted his head into a warm ray of sunshine.

"Hey, Sakura-chan? You never answered my question before. Did you see that really pretty guy? I mean he was really pretty! But he was a guy! And he was kind of weird. Talking about having someone or something precious to you equals strength or something like that."

Sakura's breath caught at the echo of her own words and she focused sharp eyes on the blonde in front of her. Forcing her hands to stay uncurled, she took the headband out of her hair and started braiding it. If only for something to keep her hands occupied.

"I mean, I guess I agree with him. The village is really important to me and Iruka-sensei and you guys! Team Seven is pretty special after all, right?"

He looked at her, earnest blue eyes searching mint ones. Sakura gave a small sigh, before smiling at him in return.

"Yeah. Team Seven _is_ pretty special. I mean, it is _us_."

A mischievous smile was shared between the two before they heard another voice call out,

"Yo. What happened to training? And why do you two look like you have a secret?"

Sakura turned her head to see Kakashi with Sasuke trailing slightly behind him.

"A girl never reveals her secrets Kakashi."

"So you admit you have a secret?"

This time it was Kakashi and Sakura who shared mischievous, knowing smiles.

"Of course." Sakura replied loftily, "But again, you should never ask what it is. Tsk tsk Kakashi-sensei. You'd think you'd have learned that lesson by now."

Kakashi eye crinkled at the exchange and he reached down to ruffle the top of her head.

"Well, you said a _girl _never reveals her secrets but what about Naruto? Since the two of you were being so chummy I assume he's in on it."

"I include Naruto in my earlier statement."

Naruto nodded to her answer. "That's right Kakashi-sensei. A girl never reveals her-HEYWAITAMINUTE! THAT'S NOT NICE SAKURA-CHAN!"

Sakura and Kakashi both laughed at Naruto's indignation. But out of the corner of her eye, Sakura could see Sasuke in the shadow of a tree. His face held a deep scowl.

Sakura bit her lip at the expression, not having to wonder at what gave him that look. No doubt Sasuke was brooding over the fact that she _did_ have a large secret, multiple large secrets, she was keeping from him. And for all of her jokes about not revealing them, Sasuke likely knew that she _had _revealed them to Kakashi.

Looking quickly to an enraged and occupied Naruto yelling at a not-as-distracted-as-he-looks Kakashi, Sakura made her way over to Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun."

"Hn."

He refused to look her in the eyes.

"Sasuke-kun."

"What?" His voice held a snappy edge to it and she rolled her eyes.

"I know you're angry. And I know why too."

He looked at her then.

"Oh, really? Are you a mind reader now too, Sakura?"

Sakura worked hard to keep her temper in, but his bratty retort rankled her nerves.

"No, actually. I'm not. But I do know you're angry because you've got a scowl on your face and a twitch in your eye. And I know why you're angry because it's the same reason we've had this exact same argument twice before."

She blew out a breath, disturbing the fringe of bangs that hung on either side of her face.

_Breathe, Sakura. Just breathe. _

"I told you already Sasuke. I have secrets. Yes. We all do. And some of mine might concern you. But it's not _just _you who's involved. There are other people and the consequences effect them as well. I will tell you as much as I can _when _I can. But that's not right now. Not during this mission. That's just gonna have to satisfy you for now."

A standoff had been reached. The two were no longer trying to be polite about what they wanted. Kakashi wisely steered Naruto away.

"Fine." Sasuke bit out. "As soon as we reach Konoha, I expect some answers."

"Fine, then. Now let's go. Naruto's going to be wondering where we are."

Sakura had the satisfaction of being able to turn her back to him, knowing he would follow.

* * *

A** little tease of a chapter really. Just under 3000 which is about 1-2 thousand I would like to have as the average for my chapters. But I came back from China only to set right off to Denver because of the death of a family member. And I meant to post this on Friday, but ended up not because an Uncle had to go into surgery. I am really sorry of the wait. It's been an eventful summer. **

**W****hat's coming next is the bridge battle. I'd like to tackle that all in a new chapter. Sorry for the long wait but I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**Also, if it feels like Sasuke wants to start up an argument every other chapter, that's intentional. The boy's a brooder. Sakura's secret is killing him inside. **

**Let me know what you think! See you next Friday!**

**I'd also like to throw a shout out o my new beta, SasukePrismaColor. You are lovely and wonderful and I'm sorry for not sending this to you first. Will send you the next one as soon as I'm finished :D. **


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